The story of the Traveling Sign

Venita Cochran
Posted 10/24/18

A well-travelled piece of local school history has found its way home.

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The story of the Traveling Sign

Posted

HAWK SPRINGS – A well-travelled piece of local school history has found its way home.

On Sept. 17, portions of a sign originally located at the top of the Hawk Springs High School was placed on a pedestal on the grounds of the former Hawk Springs Grade School, currently known as the Hawk Springs Community Building.

Construction of the Hawk Springs High School Memorial was completed thanks to donations from school alumni supplemented by a matching grant from the Goshen County Economic Development Corporation. The original high school served students from 1928 to 1966.

But, why is it called the Traveling Sign by locals and alumni across the country?

The journey of the sign began in the early 70’s when an alumnus, Stanley Moore, and the son of an alumnus, Steve Marlatt, were visiting Hawk Springs and noticed that the front of the high school had been demolished. In the ruble, they found the remains of the concrete sign that had been located at the top of the high school. 

The original sign read “Hawk Springs School.” The pair found four pieces of the sign, but could not find the last bit, with the word “School” inscribed in the concrete. 

They put the sign in their pickup truck and drove it to Riverside, Calif., where it found a home in the back yard of Hawk Springs School alumni Margaret (Groskopf) and Harold Marlatt. 

In about 2013 another alumnus, Wayne Groskopf, returned the sign to Hawk Springs.

The problem was how to put the sign back together and how to put a frame on the end of the incomplete sign. Melvin “Stretch” Groskopf, another Hawk Springs School graduate, took it from there. After several attempts, he was able to find someone in Scottsbluff, Neb., who could reassemble the surviving parts of the sign.

He then spent considerable time and money to encase the back in concrete inside of a metal frame in order to ensure that the sign did not come apart. When completed, the sign weighed exactly 1,000 pounds.

The next problem was to find someone who would build a brick pedestal on which to mount the sign, and to find the money to do it. The Hawk Springs Community Building Association applied to the GCEDC and were awarded a matching grant, which covered half the approximately $2,000 cost. Hawk Springs alumni Gerald Marlatt, Stanley Moore, James Vance, Vesper McDonald, Jim Davis and Venita Cochran, donated the remaining funds. 

The brick work was done by Ethan Fitch of Masterpiece Masonry in Torrington.