We were on a hike recently in Port Orford, along an abandoned former section of old Hwy. 101, and I decided to take a side spur, what appeared to be a typical National Forest Road. After a half mile or so, I saw a cluster of signs. Hmm; that’s a bit odd, so many of them. The Forest Service doesn’t usually do that.
Aha. It’s turned into private property. One sign would have been sufficient, though.
Might I add a sign?
Oh, I rather like that one.
“One sign would have been sufficient, though.”
So one would think. However, given the world we live in, the property owner is making his intentions clear by posting unmistakable notices and guarding against frivolous litigation. Not everyone is as respectful towards private property and property owners rights as you are.
I was thinking the owner was making his intentions clear by broadcasting that they are either fed up with trespassers, or batshit crazy. Or both.
Unfortunately it’s sad how many people think that rules are only for everybody else. There’s a popular natural area near our house and the use exploded during the pandemic. People who lived on the nearby road were inundated with cars in front of their houses, in their driveways, on their lawns, folks walking into their houses to use the washroom or just peeing on their lawns. 🙁
I could use more Port Orford scenic photos in my life right now Paul. Show us more.
Context is everything. This is an obscure spur off a trail, 10 miles from Port Orford (pop 1190). The area is a mixture of public and private lands. There’s endless public forest roads to wander on, if one is so inclined. This whole area is very sparsely populated. We didn’t see another hiker on that trail that day.
Nobody bothers to go into a private road or driveway if it’s obviously private. One sign is more than enough.
I understand the situation might be different in the proximity of a larger metro areaor very popular tourist destination, but this is neither. It’s remote.
Yup. If 1 sign stopped people, 1 sign would be posted. We installed wildlife cameras and discovered that 50% of the “wildlife” in our woods are strangers reading our polite NO TRESPASSING signs, and then walking right past them to hunt, camp, fish, walk dogs, litter, dig up trees, steal pretty rocks, and do whatever else they please on our property. Subtle doesn’t cut it, unfortunately.
My guess is that it was done with a sense of humor, like the sign post from MASH (and a gazillion other places now).
Still, I suppose I wouldn’t want to test that hypothesis and would likely just keep my distance.
Humor would be if it said “Burbank, 50 Feet”.
Probably a pot farm
Or one of the ‘sovereign citizen’ types
My guess also.
Ask any truck driver about “No Parking Loading Zone” signs. People always figure that they’ll only be a few minutes when they park in front of that sign. Then a truck shows up that should be able to back in off of the road except Mr Lazybones Few Minutes is parked there. If it’s a light delivery I sometimes block them in and when they want to leave I tell them that I’ll just be a few minutes. Very few repeat offenders after they’ve been inconvienienced.
It’s the unstated but clear message here that would for sure keep me out. Having multiples of the same exact sign posted conveys it clearly.
Perhaps another sign is needed with a similar message but facing the other way, inward.
In a way though I can’t fully disagree, I’ve been considering a “no soliciting” sign for the front door. The sheer numbers of people every month that ring the bell and want to sell me either solar panels, “free” roof inspections, pest control subscriptions/services, windows etc would have you falsely believe I live in a dilapidated falling down structure with crap piled everywhere and rodents running amok. Nobody so far wanting to rake my leaves though, that’d be real work…
Barely visible amid all the warning signs is what looks like a number for a property: 40475…I sure hate to be emergency personnel looking for this property if someone here was having a heart attack or stroke.
30 or 50 years from now, the locals may enshrine that assemblage as some sort of eccentric folk art. “Remember when you could simply post signs at the gate, without having them approved by the ‘truth in language’ committee, the ‘aesthetically appropriate’ committee, and the ‘signs per acre” review board?”
Um….no.
Amazing, but hardly surprising, that there’s a human alive who manages to view this insanity as something positive.
If someone ignores one sign, they’ll ignore 50. Meanwhile, people are burning books.
I had a farm until 2016. Had a neighbor who liked to hunt deer, he lived in a half acre lot adjoining my back fields. Never asked my permission to hunt, he just trespassed on my land. Used hidden cameras to catch him on my land. Tried to get authorities to arrest him for hunting.
Signs [highly visible] every 50 feet on my property line wasn’t enough, he claimed he never saw any signs. Was unable to prove the cameras were on my property [no one makes a camera system that syncs with a GPS location]. Had another neighbor who submitted a signed and notarized statement that he observed this hunter entering and leaving my property. Added another statement that stated he saw the hunter haul out 3 deer carcasses from my property.
The result of my complaint:
Signs disappeared, cameras were smashed. Hunter was not prosecuted or fined. Hunter’s dogs were taken away from him because of multiple complaints of animal cruelty from being chained outside without water, food, or shelter for long periods.
I fully understand the multiple reasons for these signs on the private property. Hopefully the heirs to the trespasser will be unable to claim their deceased family member didn’t see the signs. Including the one showing the AR15 rifle and target, because it’s likely the guy was walking in a marked target practice area, when he was shot.
Then there’s roadside sign clutter, as in the pictured example.
One of my favorites is the “slippery when wet” sign — isn’t every road more slippery when wet OR if this segment is particularly slick, why doesn’t the state department of transportation fix the pavement? I also love those “signal ahead” signs placed just ahead of the traffic signal. If you can’t see the signal, you’re certainly not going to notice the sign!
From the U.S. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD):
Section 2C.29 Advance Traffic Control Signs Standard:
The Advance Traffic Control symbol signs include the Stop Ahead (W3-1), Yield Ahead (W3-2), and Signal Ahead (W3-3) signs. These signs shall be installed on an approach to a primary traffic control device that is not visible for a sufficient distance to permit the road user to respond to the device (see Table 2C-4). The visibility criteria for a traffic control signal shall be based on having a continuous view of at least two signal faces for the distance specified in Table 4D-1.
Support:
Permanent obstructions causing the limited visibility might include roadway alignment or structures. Intermittent obstructions might include foliage or parked vehicles.
Guidance:
Where intermittent obstructions occur, engineering judgment should determine the treatment to be implemented.
Option:
An Advance Traffic Control sign may be used for additional emphasis of the primary traffic control device, even when the visibility distance to the device is satisfactory.
I can think of several reasons—I bet you can, too! 🙂
I used section 2C.29 in a case where a driver didn’t see a speed limit sign in the wealthy town of Chevy Chase, MD, on Connecticut Avenue. The Chevy Chase town police officer claimed she [my client] was doing in excess of 50 MPH at 4pm on a weekday. I knew this was highly unlikely, and when I checked out the location where the cop said he used his radar gun, I realized due to a 12′ high solid foliage hedge, 3 phone poles, 9 trees between the curb and sidewalk, 6 town sign posts, 3 church signs, and 2 large parking signs for the local country club, It was impossible for the cop to get an accurate radar readout. Plus, in order to even see the cars heading south on the main road, he had to be parked on the back side of the stop sign for the side street traffic. To be parked there would have [by law] required him to use his emergency lighting to warn other cars.
The judge dismissed the ticket, and admonished the town’s police chief by name, for continuing to allow this type of ticketing to go on, as it was nothing but a device to fund the town’s expenditures. I saved the paperwork in a box I marked “Crazy court cases”, and that’s how I remember all the details that caused section 2C.29 to be quoted, for both support and guidance.
When it comes to Chevy Chase, MD, nothing really changes, last time I was there, it basically looked the same.
One of those,”Car skidding” signs comes up on the dash of my Challenger when the traction control is turned off into,”Sport” mode. Better know what you are doing or it may skid off into the trees.
There was a similar sign on Highway 101 and another intersection in the San Francisco Bay area. It showed cars skidding and said, “Weave”.
Another sign one had better believe is a crummy hand lettered sign that says,”4 Wheel Drive road”.
I wonder what the back bumper of his pickup looks like.
A long way off the ground, for one.
Justy,
You are assuming it even has a rear bumper! And it may well be missing the tailgate too!
Here’s another sing that I found. I like your comments, members! I drive our vehicle to transport children to and from schools for our day care. I have a backup alarm. Do oyu think that people heed the warning? NAH. That alarm must be for the man a hundred feet down the road walking in the opposite direction.
No trespassing sign did not come through on the first try.
The comment on the top of this picture explains it all. Yours in mirth (and my girth), Tom
I guess Opus (Bloom County) and Sparky (This Modern World) aren’t welcome…
I know that this sign is off the topic, but, perhaps someone can explain it to me.
I don’t take stuff like that on picnics anymore. Potato chips and dip are about as wild as I like it now.
Those were the BEST kind of picnics!
What? No signs warning of chemtrails?
There’s a house near me that has about eight signs like this in the front yard facing a neighbor’s property. That neighbour used to lob rubbish over the fence, abuse the family, wander in and help himself to things around the yard – stuff like that. Yeah, he had problems, but it’s hard to live next to folk like that. Police were ineffective, so John installed a lot of security cameras feeding through to a security company, and signs. Lots of signs. The guy moved out or died, I forget which, but the signs remain.
Where are the bullet holes?
I thought I saw some but they turned out to be nails around the perimeter of many of the signs.
That is what I thought to as a group of signs like this are tailor made for target practice. Yet not one bullet hole…
Reminds me of a run-in I had on Bucks Mountain up near Blue River. I turned off a well-used forest road to a far less used spur road. Got a mile or so in the deep stuff and saw a series of signs not unlike these, plus hand written signs with descriptions of “trespassing” vehicles, including license plate numbers. 24 hours video surveillance, the lot.
Evidently there is a mining claim, but I find that rather dubious. None the less, I turned the Matrix around and got back to the main road ASAP.
Taken as one, it could be said to be a sign of our times.
“Do Not Post Signs Here”
lol
When he mentioned a need to have a sign at the entrance of their property that it was private and they didn’t want any trespassing, he forgot to be specific on which of his wives were to buy it.
It’s Oregon.
A better way of putting it.
This is the main entrance to a regional hospital near me.
As one comes off a high speed exit to a traffic light, just beyond the light is a sign that shows 2 black arrows indicating the 2 lanes must make a turn to the left or right, depending on the lane. Below the arrows are the words “KEEP MOVING”.
Less than a car length beyond the first sign is a STOP sign.
Turning right takes you to the ER.
Turning left takes you to the main hospital entrance. Unless you don’t stop and strike another car in the intersection that didn’t have a stop sign. In that case, your left turn might eventually take you to the ER!
A good thread .
No one uses rock salt in old shotguns anymore, maybe a good thing, it certailny kept us kids out of some others properties in the 1960’s .
-Nate