The sign nobody owns, but everyone loves: Roadside relic gets a revival on Century Drive

Published 5:45 am Friday, July 25, 2025

Former Bend mayor has quietly cared for the Century Drive landmark for nearly 30 years

For anyone heading out to the Deschutes National Forest on Century Drive, a familiar sight marks the start of the journey — an oversized wood structure that displays the names of destinations along the Cascade Lakes Highway and their distance.

The sign — which has a sort-of 1960s-era Americana road trip feel to it — states in big, bold letters that passing motorists are heading in the direction of the “Cascade Lakes Recreation Area.” First on the list of destinations is “Bachelor Butte,” a mere 20 miles away. Distances to a variety of lakes along the highway are included, as well as Pringle Falls.

If you stopped here to get a closer look you may have noticed a little beaver is etched into the top of the sign and painted white. It is this beaver that received special attention this week by a group of volunteers who descended on the sign to give it a touch up — the beaver was fading and needed some fresh paint to bring it back to life.

Spearheading this effort to give the sign a refresh is Steve Stenkamp, 68, a local history buff and former Bend mayor. Stenkamp’s volunteer team included local artist and graphics designer Sue Carrington, who volunteered to paint the beaver.

Steve Stenkamp, left, watches as Sue Carrington, both of Bend, repaints the beaver on top of the Cascade Lakes Recreation Area sign on Century Drive in Bend Wednesday morning. (Andy Tullis/The Bulletin)

Quirky piece of history

Stenkamp, a former Bend High School instructor and Bend Fire Department employee, has been maintaining the sign for nearly 30 years as a private individual whose main interest is simply to keep alive a quirky piece of Central Oregon history. No agency claims ownership of the sign.

Kelly Cannon-Miller, executive director of the Deschutes Historical Museum, calls the sign a “great historic landmark” with mysterious origins.

“Its design imitates the state heritage marker program signs, affectionately called ‘Beaver Boards,’ which was a program started under the Oregon Department of Transportation in 1939,” said Cannon-Miller.

“While the Department of Transportation installed the sign in 1969, there aren’t clear records as to how it came to be or who funded it. It doesn’t exist in the inventory of signs for the Oregon Heritage Markers,” she said.

The mileages on the sign are no longer correct because the highway has been realigned since it was installed. They are all around one mile more than the current distance, said Stenkamp. But there are no plans to correct the distances.

“The mileages aren’t quite accurate but still it has some nice historical significance in the community,” Stenkamp said.

As for the beaver, Stenkamp says its presence on the sign has nothing to do with Oregon State University and its mascot. Supporters of the University of Oregon have asked him in the past to replace the beaver with a duck.

“It is the state animal of Oregon. It is going to stay a beaver. It has nothing to do with the rivalry between two football programs,” he said.

Chance encounter saved it

Stenkamp’s involvement with the sign, which started in 1997, began with a chance meeting. At the time, a property owner was building a house on his street and Stenkamp got to know Brian Gilbride, the contractor working the project.

Sue Carrington, top left, and Steve Stenkamp, both of Bend, repair the Cascade Lakes Recreation Area sign on Century Drive in Bend Wednesday morning. (Andy Tullis/The Bulletin)

At some point during their interactions, Gilbride mentioned that the sign on Century Drive had toppled over in a windstorm several months earlier. He expressed a hope that the sign be repaired and erected again. With Stenkamp’s connections to the city (he had been mayor in the mid-1990s), he saw an opportunity.

Stenkamp did some research and could not find any entity responsible for the sign. He contacted the Oregon Department of Transportation, the city of Bend, Deschutes County and the U.S. Forest Service. None had any record of it.

The best he could surmise was that it had been set up in the late 1960s by a tourism agency that no longer existed. At the time of its construction, the sign was located outside the city limits and the county wasn’t claiming it.

Volunteer effort

With no one claiming responsibility for the sign, Stenkamp and Gilbride organized an effort to get the sign out of the dirt and make it vertical again. Local volunteers and companies donated time and materials to get it back into place.

Pacific Power donated the poles. A boom truck was lent by local businessman Les Mombert. The holes were drilled by Ron Robinson Construction. Jim Olson, owner of a concrete mixing business, donated the concrete.

“Brian and I kind of took the bull by the horns but there were a lot of businesses in this community that helped make it happen. It wouldn’t be standing up if we didn’t get the concrete or the poles (donated) or the holes drilled. All those companies and all those people were behind it.”

Stenkamp said locals applauded their effort to get the sign back up.

“As we were putting the sign back up we were getting lots of honks and waves. Both Brian and I got a lot of compliments from members of the community for putting it back up,” he said. “If we hadn’t put it back up, it would have just laid in the dirt and rotted.”

The sign has stood there ever since. Stenkamp still maintains the sign and the area around it, trimming back brush to reduce the likelihood of damage in case a wildfire breaks out in the area. He continues the work even after the recent death of Gilbride. Stenkamp says he’s dedicated to seeing it maintained in the years to come.

“And if it falls over again we’ll put her back up,” he said.