People forget the history they are making very rapidly, unless a scribe is recording notes of everything they say and do, and someone is graphically saving the scenes. Not very likely today and even less likely 100 to 200 years ago. So, at least to help us remember a tiny fraction of the infinite variety of social and work scenes of our forbears in their community of the time, we have small museums and road signs sprinkled throughout Cayuga County.

If we tried to remember it all, we would need every other residence to be a small museum, and Burma Shave signs along every foot of highway. But in its infinite wisdom, the New York State Department of Education saw fit to create and install myriad road signs at places of historic interest. This started in 1932, so I expect it was funded by some federal money, under the Roosevelt New Deal, which helped us out of the Great Depression.

You know the signs: blue and gold rectangles of cast iron, with raised lettering and a crest. Each sign is unique and tells the story of historical interest for a nearby location. Part of the mystery of this story is how each location/history was chosen. If you want to see a listing of all the historical markers in Cayuga County, go to http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/historicmarkers/index.cfm

I don't pay much attention to signs on the road, other than traffic signs. But the reason behind this story came from Judy Furness, Ledyard's hysterical historian. When I asked her for a topic for this column, she asked me to find out about the new historical marker at the north end of the village of Aurora. It just appeared and everyone she had called knew nothing about it, except that it had been there for many years, then it was gone, and could I find whoever erected it?

The mayor of Aurora and the headman of the department of public works both said “aw shucks” kicked the dirt, and said they had nothing to do with it.

So I called the next logical place, the New York State Department of Transportation in Waterloo. Got to the man in charge of historical markers, really nice man and helpful too.

As I thought, DOT had taken it down years ago because it was damaged and had it repaired and repainted. Then it sat with a huge pile of other signs to be erected when the budget allowed.

This year, they have had a replant system going, with a large number of these signs now back in the ground. But they have hardly touched the big pile.

He is talking about the possibility of giving them back to their hometowns, so town highway supers, take notice and ask for your signs.

It certainly is great to know that one of our big state agencies is taking care of such a small project. Yes, there is a God in heaven.

William Dugan is former supervisor for the town of Ledyard