It Happened Here -- The Hunt
For me, personally, one of the most interesting aspects of writing this blog has been getting out on the road and hunting down and taking photos of NYSHM's.
There are a number of websites that are very helpful in locating New York markers. The world wide Historic Marker Data Base has some of the best maps and direction to New York markers, listed by County, but its coverage is somewhat spotty and markers on town roads and county back-roads are often missed. (http://www.hmdb.org/CountiesList.asp)
The photo-sharing site Flickr has an interest group "New York State Historic Markers."
The photo-sharing site Flickr has an interest group "New York State Historic Markers."
With 71 contributors and over 2600 marker photos it is an excellent resource but with no index or order to the submissions from contributors, and frequent duplications of signs it is difficult to use to find signs in a desired area, and often the locations of signs are omitted. I often publish pictures of signs I have rediscovered, on this site that haven't had pictures of them posted anywhere previously. (https://www.flickr.com/groups/nyshistoricalmarkers/)
Waymarking.com is a site for geocaching enthusiasts. One of its categories is "New York Historical Markers." They list a large number of markers as destinations for geocachers with GPS equipment. They seem especially strong in the middle and western parts of the state and their group members continue to post signs to their site. The site frequently has good maps and it also has a search engine that allows for a location/proximity searches and searches by subject. The markers can also be arranged alphabetically to enable you to look up an individual marker if you know its first words.
(http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=fd2c1e1a-fbae-428a-b4a5-2b0053e55534)
Stopping Points is a site that has collected the New York historic markers listed in the State marker list (see below) along with sites on the National Register of Historic Places and attempted to locate them using computer generated mapping techniques. Unfortunately, because the addresses supplied to this site are often pretty imprecise, the maps generated from them are often pretty imprecise. From a list of markers around Ticonderoga, for example, a number of markers appear located on the Stopping Points map at a single spot on Ticonderoga's Montcalm Street, which happens to be the central location in the village. In other instances markers identified as being located on Broadway in some small upstate towns are represented on the map of Broadway in Manhattan! Nevertheless, occasionally there are markers listed there that are listed nowhere else. (http://www.stoppingpoints.com/ny/)
The W.G. Pomeroy foundation is an organization dedicated to promoting local history by underwriting the creation of new historic markers, across the state. Their website lists the markers they have created and features press releases of their latest markers. (http://www.wgpfoundation.org/index.cfm/nys-historic-grant-programs/historic-roadside-marker-program/current-historic-markers/)
Several counties and towns governments have lists, often with pictures of markers found in their jurisdictions on their websites or the websites of their county/town historians.
Finally, the New York State Museum, as a division of the Department of Education published, on its website, a list the Department compiled back in the mid-1960's. Though the State of New York had funded the creation of most New York State Historical Markers from 1926 until the mid 1960's the records of the applications for these state markers had not been kept, and the list appears to have been put together from partial records and perhaps a canvass of the counties. It is a curious document, though quite accessible with markers grouped by county and divided by township and city. Oddly, it is a document rife with typographical errors, which in some cases have resulted in locations of markers being lost or obscured. The directions to the signs are also archaic, with few roads numbered, and most local roads identified only as "town road" or "county road" described by their general direction, with a rough estimate of distance from a town or city. (https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/historicmarkers/)
" Location: ON COUNTY RD. ABOUT 4 MILES SOUTHWEST OF CANAJOHARIE"
Waymarking.com is a site for geocaching enthusiasts. One of its categories is "New York Historical Markers." They list a large number of markers as destinations for geocachers with GPS equipment. They seem especially strong in the middle and western parts of the state and their group members continue to post signs to their site. The site frequently has good maps and it also has a search engine that allows for a location/proximity searches and searches by subject. The markers can also be arranged alphabetically to enable you to look up an individual marker if you know its first words.
(http://www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=fd2c1e1a-fbae-428a-b4a5-2b0053e55534)
Stopping Points is a site that has collected the New York historic markers listed in the State marker list (see below) along with sites on the National Register of Historic Places and attempted to locate them using computer generated mapping techniques. Unfortunately, because the addresses supplied to this site are often pretty imprecise, the maps generated from them are often pretty imprecise. From a list of markers around Ticonderoga, for example, a number of markers appear located on the Stopping Points map at a single spot on Ticonderoga's Montcalm Street, which happens to be the central location in the village. In other instances markers identified as being located on Broadway in some small upstate towns are represented on the map of Broadway in Manhattan! Nevertheless, occasionally there are markers listed there that are listed nowhere else. (http://www.stoppingpoints.com/ny/)
The W.G. Pomeroy foundation is an organization dedicated to promoting local history by underwriting the creation of new historic markers, across the state. Their website lists the markers they have created and features press releases of their latest markers. (http://www.wgpfoundation.org/index.cfm/nys-historic-grant-programs/historic-roadside-marker-program/current-historic-markers/)
Several counties and towns governments have lists, often with pictures of markers found in their jurisdictions on their websites or the websites of their county/town historians.
Finally, the New York State Museum, as a division of the Department of Education published, on its website, a list the Department compiled back in the mid-1960's. Though the State of New York had funded the creation of most New York State Historical Markers from 1926 until the mid 1960's the records of the applications for these state markers had not been kept, and the list appears to have been put together from partial records and perhaps a canvass of the counties. It is a curious document, though quite accessible with markers grouped by county and divided by township and city. Oddly, it is a document rife with typographical errors, which in some cases have resulted in locations of markers being lost or obscured. The directions to the signs are also archaic, with few roads numbered, and most local roads identified only as "town road" or "county road" described by their general direction, with a rough estimate of distance from a town or city. (https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/historicmarkers/)
" Location: ON COUNTY RD. ABOUT 4 MILES SOUTHWEST OF CANAJOHARIE"
"Location:
ON TN. RD. NEAR BRIDGE OVER SO. CHUCTANUNDA CR. ABOUT 1 1/2 MIS. SOUTHWEST OF AMSTERDAM"
instead of "at the bridge, on Hartley Rd, west of NY 30, in the Town of Florida".
Despite its shortcomings, the New York State Museum Historic Marker Site is perhaps the best source for markers before the mid-1960's.
******
I have mentioned before the heavy toll automobiles have taken on NYSHM's. (On my last three road trips I took pictures of 60 markers. Of these, 12 (20%) showed evidence of welding repairs --most likely following collisions from automobiles.) I suspect, however, that a more serious threat to NYSHM's occur when roads are widened, corners straightened and potentially lethal objects are cleared from their shoulders, (like trees and three inch steel posts with cast iron signs affixed to them.) Many major roads like NY 5, NY 20 and NY5S that once had numerous NYSHM's were widened, straightened and graded and many of their signs have disappeared forever. Sometimes, however, old sections of the roads have been preserved as local roads, driveways etc. and I have found a few "lost" signs on these fragments of the former state roads.
The Willis Store marker is located on a town road, the Warner-Hayden Rd, in Warner's Lake that was part of NY157A abandoned by the State when a local bridge was washed out and the DOT decided to redo the section of the curve with a raised road over a new large culvert. I probably would not havelooked down this road except that on the corner of the street were a few sections of old concrete and cable guard rail once commonly used on all State roads.
ON TN. RD. NEAR BRIDGE OVER SO. CHUCTANUNDA CR. ABOUT 1 1/2 MIS. SOUTHWEST OF AMSTERDAM"
instead of "at the bridge, on Hartley Rd, west of NY 30, in the Town of Florida".
Despite its shortcomings, the New York State Museum Historic Marker Site is perhaps the best source for markers before the mid-1960's.
******
I have mentioned before the heavy toll automobiles have taken on NYSHM's. (On my last three road trips I took pictures of 60 markers. Of these, 12 (20%) showed evidence of welding repairs --most likely following collisions from automobiles.) I suspect, however, that a more serious threat to NYSHM's occur when roads are widened, corners straightened and potentially lethal objects are cleared from their shoulders, (like trees and three inch steel posts with cast iron signs affixed to them.) Many major roads like NY 5, NY 20 and NY5S that once had numerous NYSHM's were widened, straightened and graded and many of their signs have disappeared forever. Sometimes, however, old sections of the roads have been preserved as local roads, driveways etc. and I have found a few "lost" signs on these fragments of the former state roads.
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| Fort Failing marker on "Old Ft.Plain Rd." Originally part of NY 5S |
The Willis Store marker is located on a town road, the Warner-Hayden Rd, in Warner's Lake that was part of NY157A abandoned by the State when a local bridge was washed out and the DOT decided to redo the section of the curve with a raised road over a new large culvert. I probably would not havelooked down this road except that on the corner of the street were a few sections of old concrete and cable guard rail once commonly used on all State roads.
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