Nevada roadside markers to be updated
By Emerson Marcus, Reno Gazette-Journal
The text on many of the blue and gray, Nevada-shaped roadside markers that note historically significant events and locations will be updated in the coming months and years to fix errors and terminology that could be read as insensitive or even racist, Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer Ron James said.
Phrases like “Chinese hoards stormed” Tuscarora and “Before the coming of the white man, roving Washoe and Paiute bands inhabited the Truckee Meadows” were a couple of examples, James said. Date inaccuracies, physical wear, spelling and grammatical errors will also be corrected.
“Almost all of them need to be updated for some reason,” said James, who estimated the price of each new marker at $1,000. “We also grade the markers. So, as funding becomes available, we’ll address the ones that need to be addressed the soonest.”
The Nevada Department of Transportation will fund much of the effort with about $88,000 this year to help with maintenance and replacement of damaged markers, NDOT public information officer Meg Ragonese said. After a marker is determined to be damaged or stolen, it will be replaced with a new marker containing updated text, James said.
Most of the markers were written by members of the Nevada Historical Society in the 1960s and 1970s after the National Historical Preservation Act of 1966.
