Glacier Park featured in new 'welcome' signs

Tourists driving into Montana will be greeted by new “Welcome to Montana” highway signs that will be installed starting this spring.

One sign depicts Glacier National Park’s St. Mary Lake looking west toward the sunset and Fusillade Mountain. Ten others show images of a grizzly bear, a bull elk with a big rack, the white cliffs along the Missouri River, several mountain scenes and the mounted skull of a roaring Tyrannosaurus rex.

The new signs will be located at 34 locations ringing the state, including the Port of Roosville on U.S. 93 and the Port of Piegan on U.S. 89. All the signs are scheduled to be in place by the end of the summer.

New technology is providing the opportunity for some spectacular sign-painting. In the past, the Montana Department of Transportation used screen-printing to create signs, which limited images to a few colors and took at least a day per color to create.

MDT is now using a high-tech digital printer that can print complex photo-quality signs that are long-lasting and quickly manufactured. Many of the images featured on the new welcome signs are photographs taken by Donita Sexton, an award-winning photographer on staff with the Montana Office of Tourism.

“The new highway signs will greet visitors and welcome Montanans home in a way we can all be proud of,” Gov. Steve Bullock said. “The powerful design and durable, cost-effective manufacturing is the perfect example of effective state government — interagency collaboration addressing the needs of Montanans.”

The Montana Office of Tourism at the Department of Commerce first approached the MDT about redesigning the signs last year, as part of their effort to re-brand Montana.

“We wanted to create a design that would not only evoke excitement and give the visitor a sense of what’s to come, but also to cement our position that Montana is a premier tourism destination and a great place to do business,” Department of Commerce director Meg O’Leary said.

The timing was good for MDT, which had been planning to reevaluate and design new welcome signs. The existing signs were designed in the late 1980s. The Department of Commerce made the designs in-house.

“The new signs will give the traveling public a glimpse of Montana’s beauty and encourage them to explore the many authentic experiences Montana has to offer,” MDT director Mike Tooley said.