HELENA – When drivers get on Interstate 90 in Livingston to go to Bozeman, the signs don’t indicate that the road leads to Bozeman. The signs say the road goes to Butte.
And when travelers heading to Bozeman pass a mileage sign outside Whitehall, they aren’t told how close they are Bozeman. They are told how far away they are from Billings.
Those snubs have not gone unnoticed by some proud Bozemanites, who have lobbied the Montana Department of Transportation to put Bozeman on the map, so to speak.
“It’s annoying that five miles east of Bozeman, the [ramp sign] says ‘Butte.’ What’s up with that?” mused Rep. Brady Wiseman, D-Bozeman. “A zillion people come through our town. Why don’t we tell them where it is?”
Wiseman said he first raised the question to the MDT last summer, at the request of some business owners in town. And it seems to have paid off.
This week, the agency’s director signed a letter pledging the signs will be replaced as quickly they can “be made and installed.”
Signs bearing our fair city’s name will be used to mark ramps at the Bear Canyon, Livingston and Big Timber I-90 interchanges, the letter says. Bozeman will also be added to all mileage signs between Butte and Billings.
MDT Director Jim Lynch said Friday that the signs should be up “as early as this spring.”
Lynch said the existing signs date back to a time when Bozeman wasn’t the metropolis it is now, and that Bozeman’s concerns have prompted his office to look to other places where the signs don’t reflect the population centers.
One Bozeman business owner who pushed for the new sings was Chris Naumann, owner of Barrel Mountaineering and director of the Bozeman Downtown Business Partnership.
“On a personal level, I couldn’t help but notice that Bozeman wasn’t listed,” Naumann said. “Bozeman’s growth over the last 10 years wasn’t being properly identified.”
Naumann said eventually he wants to see brown signs on the Interstate directing travelers to “historic downtown Bozeman,” as some other Montana cities already have.
But he said the mileage and directional updates will be a good start.
“Certainly, the signs identifying Bozeman are the first step,” he said.
