Originally published at: Route 66, America's historic highway, to be rehabbed | Boing Boing
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This appears to be my opportunity to share that I have, in fact, slept in a “wigwam”:
Hrm - kinda annoying they appropriated the culture for a kitschy experience, and didn’t at least name it the Teepee/Tipi Motel.
Wigwams are typically domed and covered in bark, skins, grass, and/or sticks.
Anyway, I have been on parts of Route 66 before. There are some neat tourist traps.
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Hence, the quotation marks around wigwam. 
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They have quite the challenge before them. Idiots from everywhere stole the original street signs for Route 66 to hang in their various man caves, and highway workers ended up painting the route numbers on the pavement in an attempt to mark the route with something unstealable. Even then, some idiots managed to dig up some of those sections of the pavement.
How are they going to mark the route in such a way that the signs won’t be stolen by assholes?
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Colorado had to change mile marker 420 signs to 419.99. However, I would guess that Route 66 would be best off selling official, to-spec Route 66 signs in every single gift shop on the route. Heck, sell used ones that are weathered and replaced at a premium. Eliminate the mystique/danger/rarity and turn it into something anyone can buy and I imagine thefts would drop precipitously.
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Alas, the thrill of the theft will still motivate plenty of assholes. People steal bibles more than any other book, and plenty of places give them away.
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Unfortunately not everyone will spend the $70+ that a typical small street sign would cost when all they have to do is roll up with a hacksaw and commit a property crime, where they see the worst outcome is likely picking up trash on the roadside for a couple of weekends.
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There’s a decent broad stretch that parallels I-44 in Missouri between St. Roberts (the stupid Uranus tourist trap) and Powelville. It goes by the hamlet of Devil’s Elbow which up until recently had a biker bar with amazing BBQ ribs. They would serve an entire rack of ribs on a baking sheet with two slices of bread. I’m told it burned down a couple of years ago, which isn’t surprising what with all the flammable kitsch nailed to every surface inside. The Devil’s Elbow bridge is quite nice.
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There’s a really neat piece of original pavement in Missouri, near Devil’s Elbow, still 4-laned:
The Big Piney is a pretty good canoe/kayak river
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Are you looking over my shoulder? ^^ 
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Not wild at all to anyone from a rural area 
. Most roads start their life this way and it works perfectly fine when traffic is low. There’s time to see each other coming, and one car or the other will have pull-out space somewhere.
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I propose being prepared to replace the signs frequently. Some folks will steal them just because. Some folks would be happy to buy one. If the numbers of the latter exceed the former, that’s great.
Carve the markers into boulders?
It’s probably not a good solution though.
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Well, let’s see. The professional traffic engineers who have been trying to solve this problem for the last 80 years haven’t come up with a solution. But as an internet rando, I’m obviously overqualified to toss out an off-the cuff observation that will immediately put an end to human misbehavior with a solution that is practical, easy to install but hard to remove or deface, incorporates the appropriate nighttime retroreflective materials, meets traffic safety requirements, is environmentally friendly, and will be durable enough to last at least 40 years of harsh sunlight, icy winters, and tornadic winds. And it has to cost less than $100 per sign, even though every damn politician on the road is going to blame their tax increases on it anyway.
It was a very hard problem that they couldn’t solve before. It’s still a very hard problem today.
Yes, selling them as souvenirs would stop a fraction of the theft problem, and could be a nice little revenue generator. But the rest of the problem of defeating the cavemen remains.
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I’ve got it: make the signs themselves simple, blank projection screens with high-intensity laser-based and DRM-locked projectors providing the actual image. Mount the projectors in a concrete bunker for good measure. Unstealable!
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Needs moar AI-controlled Blockchain.
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Although I do not drive I like the idea of Route 66 making a comeback. It was a great TV show. Most Americans love to drive but don’t really like the monotony of the freeway system. Most of the tourist attractions are long gone so it’s going to take some gumption to re-open some.
You say cavemen control, and my mind goes directly to a thagomizer… pity it costs a bit more than $100 a pop.
