If the debate raging in the Colorado Sunday e-mail box over whether to replace the ’50s-style “Welcome to Colorful Colorado” signs with more modern markers were an election, old-school would win in a landslide.
Last Sunday, we asked readers to weigh in on a call by the Colorado Office of Economic Development to dump 41 rustic signs that stand at entrances to Colorado for carved sandstone panels. A prototype made public in December reads “Welcome to Colorado,” in red and blue letters.
For some Coloradans, the proposal feels like a gut check.
We heard from people in Trinidad, Fruita, Sterling and towns we’d never heard of. We heard from folks in Utah, for heaven’s sake. All worry that a sleek sign developed as part of the “Advancing Colorado” economic development campaign might discount the state’s rustic heritage.
In all, 129 people wrote us.
A few were OK with changing the sign, but all of those insisted that the word “colorful” be added. Another few asked for a return to the colorful metal signs that hung at the borders for most of the 1990s.
But the other 123, they all were passionate about preserving the funky gateway signs.
“The proposed new sign shows nothing but the name in a common advertising format,” wrote Dave Galpin of Centennial. “If we change to that, we might as well go all the way and change the name to East California.”
Margaret Eckel wrote that many times she stopped at the state line and “jumped up and down on the shoulder of the road along side those signs for the privilege of being once again in Colorado. I don’t believe the new signs will invoke the same type of response.”
Denver architect Robert R. Larsen wrote that the “nostalgic signs better convey the scenic beauty the visitor is headed for. Sure we have high-technology industries in Colorado, but I don’t think the average tourist entering our state plans on visiting Sun Microsystems or IBM.”
To Sandra J. Kammerzell, who lives in Fort Collins, nostalgia seems a top Colorado selling point. “The craggy, old wooden signs are hard to beat for nostalgia,” she wrote. “Some things are better left unchanged.”
How do you feel about the “Colorful Colorado” sign design and the plan to change it? Send your response to info@dot.state.co.us, and copy us at coloradosunday@denverpost.com. Feel free to include a photo.
