This has got to be the worst looking billboard in western North Dakota and eastern Montana. It is located along I-94 between Sentinel Butte and Beach, North Dakota. The sign advertises an annual rodeo held at Home on The Range (HOTR) which is a place for troubled kids. The rodeo is held as a fundraiser for the "boys' ranch". The past couple of years, HOTR has started putting a sign up like this a month or so before the event. None of the signs have been much more attractive than this one but this is the absolute worst. From the back side it looks like the next time we have a good wind from the west, the whole thing will blow over! I am convinced that HOTR has just been painting over the same old plywood each year to make the sign!





This might be a one of a kind sign considering where it is located. The south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park is bordered on the south end by I-94, near Medora, North Dakota. What makes this sign unique is that is located on a piece of private deeded land within the park. This is the very last piece of private land in TRNP. Over the years since the park was established as Theodore Roosevelt National Memory Park in 1947 and as a National Park in 1978, as much private land as possible was consolidated into the park. Common practice has been for the National Park Service to make a land swap with land owners within the park, trading them for land outside of the park.

This sign appeared over a year ago. Out of curiosity, not long after the first time we saw it, my  husband called the realtor. He was told the current owner had been offered a trade by the Park Service but declined it, deciding to try to sell it instead. The price being asked for the forty acres is outrageous! Especially when taking into consideration there is no access to it via the park or interstate. Getting utilities to it would also be next to impossible. Due to it's proximity to the park, use of the parcel would be very, very  limited. Since it is right along the highway a commercial enterprise of some sort might do well but there is no way the National Park Service would let that happen! The land has changed hands several times over the years, once even being willed to the Catholic Church. It will be interesting to see how long the current owner will hold out before taking the land trade offered, finds someone to buy it  or just gives up and holds on to it!