The genesis of big ass ugly 4x8 highway signs

Just a little bit of recent SD history for ya! If someone can prove me wrong by showing an earlier example, please clue me in. But as far I know it, I’ve actually been in the midst of a SD political historical landscape icon. The Big Ugly 4x8 spray painted sign.

Not directly, at least. More like an observer noticing it as it went by. Like when I saw Kevin Costner at the Ramkota in Pierre when he was doing Dances with Wolves. Or when my Dad flew into Minneapolis on the same plane as “Baron Van Raschke” of AWA wrestling fame.

I first noticed the South Dakota 4x8’s come about when Tim Amdahl first ran for School & Lands in 1986, and made his own highway signs. Tim told me himself that he went and actually paid a sign company to cut a sheet of sheet metal for a template. Supposedly it was hundreds of dollars just for the template – and from there, he mass produced them onto cheap inexpensive chipboard.

Next time they were used? (Here’s where I come in) When Laska Schoenfelder ran for PUC against Dennis Eisnach. GOP Communications Director Mark Foster modified this concept and used a much more economical cardboard for the template. I helped him paint a couple of evenings, hence my interjection into the history of the 4x8.

They had been used on and off ever since, And I’ve watched them evolve into screen printed coroplast, or vinyl lettering (as has been used in other states). But that’s always been too expensive for me. The guys who can afford that can afford bumper stickers and pins, and all the other junk. Not me. I run a much leaner ship than that.

Since working with Mark, I’d used the idea of cardboard on a local county race in the early 90’s, and with Senator Brock Greenfield’s first campaign run. I own an opaque overhead which has given me great tracing ability for my candidates.

In the past few years, the master of the 4x8 sign? Not a senatorial candidate, or gubernatorial candidate. But one of my closest friends, State Auditor Rich Sattgast.

Why is he the master? He didn’t pay anyone to do his signs. He mass produced them all himself, and had hundreds across the countryside. While he wasn’t the only one who did this, he took the cardboard technique (which everyone else was still using), and went it one better with a more permanent template that would easily last 100 printings, and be ready for another 100 more. Try that with cardboard, masonite, or pressboard – you can’t do it.

Humbly, he did use my opaque overhead to trace the image, and entrusted his techniques back to me. He and I use different equipment to cut the template, but the end result is the same.

Alas, with hurricanes, other natural disasters, and the free market greatly inflating the price of plywood, I’m afraid the days of the big ugly 4x8 are waning, giving way to screen printed coroplast. Anymore, the cost per sheet is about the same, providing a very crisp image visible from a greater distance.

I know I’m looking at perhaps the last years of the big ugly 4x8. But they’ve been fun. Kind of an old style example of free speech that we just don’t see often enough.