Tough life for a roadside marker: It's subject to sun and snow and rain and, sometimes, tornadic-force winds.
It's an inadvertent target of cars and trucks, and the intentional bull's-eye for spray paint, handguns, rifles and shotguns.
It's been uprooted, abducted and, when the price of aluminum was higher, likely hustled over the state line and sold for scrap in South Dakota.
“Hard to imagine a recycler would accept such an object,†said Lynne Ireland, deputy director of the Nebraska State Historical Society, “but history is a litany of occurrences that are hard to imagine.â€
And that's what these markers serve: History.
They endure all of this, the weather and the vandals and the bullet holes, to be able to tell you this was the spot of the Ainsworth Army Air Field. Or where Mari Sandoz grew up. Or where 25 military horses and four mules perished during the Easter Blizzard of 1873, or where Sam Bass pulled off “the first and greatest robbery of a Union Pacific train†four years later.
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Or to give you more than 500 other place-based lessons about Nebraska's past.
But the damage takes its toll, and about 100 of the markers need repair, repainting or replacement.
Which is why the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation launched the Nebraska Marker Project, and is trying to raise $80,000 to fix the monuments by next year's sesquicentennial.
Not familiar with the foundation? They're aware of that, even though the organization that raises money for the Historical Society has been around since 1942 -- a full 15 years before the Legislature approved the placement of roadside markers.
When its staff attended the Cattlemen’s Ball last year in Lynch, few people had heard about the foundation, said Leslie Fattig, its executive director. But they had seen the state’s roadside monuments, which the foundation's fundraising has helped support.
“We started talking about the Nebraska historical markers, and they said: 'You're those guys?' And we said, 'Yes, we're those guys,'†she said. “People relate to us through those markers.â€
So back in Lincoln, they came up with the Nebraska Marker Project, which they launched this week. It gets the foundation's name out there, and it raises money for the monument program.
The cast aluminum markers aren't cheap. A traditional two-post sign -- 5 feet wide, 6 feet tall -- costs $5,300. A smaller, single-post marker runs $1,950. The state doesn't budget for these, and the expenses are typically paid by local groups and governments.
Repairs can be costly, too. The foundation figures it needs to raise an average of $500 to $700 for each, Fattig said, depending on the damage.
“Sometimes there's paint touch-up, sometimes the weather has wreaked havoc. Sometimes people have used them for target practice, and sometimes cars have run into them.â€
Sometimes they disappear. The society keeps a list of the state of the monuments, and it notes a marker near Wayne was possibly taken by the 2013 tornado, and markers are missing from Deuel and Dundy counties.
The 515 history lessons span millions of years, from the geology of Cheyenne County to Malcolm X’s boyhood home in Omaha. And the program remains popular: 13 markers were installed last year, and so far in 2016, 11 more have either been ordered or planted.