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ALTON — The population may only be 120 residents, but one small town in southern Utah has made a name for itself with its unique road signs.
Art Andersen moved to Alton, Kane County, after retiring from Kennecott Utah Copper in 1992. To help him make the transition from Salt Lake City to the small town, Andersen said his son-in-law jokingly bought him a custom-made stop sign that read "whoa."
"He says, 'If you are going to move to a little town like Alton, you need a whoa sign,' " Andersen said, laughing.
While Andersen was building his new home in Alton, several of the residents helped him, including the town mayor Orval Palmer. Palmer saw the sign hanging in Andersen's driveway and it sparked his interest.
"He saw it and said, 'Where did you get that?'" Anderson said. "I said, 'Oh, my son-in-law gave it to me.' He says, 'Can you get some more?'"
"We thought that's pretty cool because Orval was the mayor and he's a cowboy, and so it was kind of the whole twist on it," said Palmer's wife, Gerta.
Six of the signs were installed around Alton in 1994, but within a few years, most of them had been stolen, Palmer said. Local law enforcement officers found a few of the signs in a lake a few miles outside of Alton and attributed the vandalism to residents in nearby towns. Other signs were taken as souvenirs by tourists passing through.
"It wasn't more than about a year or so, and there were only two left," Andersen said. "They kept disappearing. I guess they are kind of a novelty and people think they need them more than we do."
In 1998, several more whoa signs were ordered to replace the ones that had been stolen around town. However, the City Council realized that it wasn't legal to put any of the signs on the main road through Alton because it was designated as a county road. Regular stop signs were posted on Main Street and the rest of the signs remained whoa signs.
"They made a name for Alton," Palmer said.
The town hasn't had any more problems with theft and Gerta Palmer said the whoa signs have been a great addition to their small community.
"It was just fun and people have come and taken pictures," Gerta Palmer said.
"Tourists come and stop and take pictures and they think that's just awesome. It's kind of been a fun thing that's unique to our town."
