ighway signs have a history all their own and words alone can't always convey what these signs look like in all their wonderful detail. There is the dramatic silhouette of a Sioux Indian chief on North Dakota's state marker and a brilliant sunflower on a black background graces state roadways in Kansas. James Lin, a chronicler of highway road markers, grew frustrated when trying to describe this functional art to fellow sign aficionados. In 1996, while an undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology, he gathered together a repository of highway signs from around the world and from past decades. His Highway Route Markers site is the culmination of these efforts.

"I've always had this strange interest in highway signs and roads since I was really young, and I've never been able to explain it," says Lin, 23, now a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley. Even his parents thought he was strange, he adds. With the developing popularity of Internet newsgroups, Lin met hundreds of other people who shared his love of signs and would soon find himself at the center of a highway-marker fan community.

Mile One
"I posted a note on the newsgroup misc.transport.road and asked for images," Lin says. "Unexpectedly, this guy right across the campus at Caltech, not even a couple of miles away, e-mailed me and said I could borrow this folder that he had bought at a flea market. It was one of those sticker folders, with spaces for all the states' stickers, so that kids can match the sticker with the right spot. He had bought it — with all the stickers already in place — for a couple of dollars." Originally, Lin planned to just put up all 50 current state route markers. "It's just ballooned," he says. "That really surprised me. It's taken on a life of its own." Lin's site now houses not only those original 50 route markers, but also the interstate and route markers from around the world, many of which he photographed himself during a recent trip to Asia. However, most of Lin's images come from site visitors: "Some guy e-mailed me a huge [image file] with all of the 1940s [American road signs] in it, and I cleaned those up and posted them."

Lin has performed the same process for hundreds of other highway signs over the years. "I try to be as complete as possible," he says. "My site deals with particular routes, not every type, but specific signs. It covers route markers from around the world, not just street signs. I found a niche and kept it." He certainly has. Road-sign junkies from around the world link to Lin's site, which may be the first — and some may argue best — collection of highway signs from around the world.

Staking His Marker
Over the years, Lin's sign site has grown thanks to the steady flow of images submitted by other sign fans — currently Lin says he receives an average of four new images per month. Inspired by this response, Lin posted another site dedicated to the history of the Lincoln Highway, America's first cross-country thoroughfare. It is thoroughly researched, and features everything from newspaper articles written about the road to maps from the 1910s, when the highway was first built. He also posted Via Guide, a vast collection of links to other road-dedicated Web sites.

Lin plans to completely redesign the Highway Route Markers site in the coming months and add additional photos. In the interim, he has been posting all images in his online Grab Bag, which has hundreds of sign photos that have been submitted by site visitors. Highlights include an early 1960s photograph portraying a jumble of multi-colored Arizona state markers and an illustration of sign styles under consideration by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials before today's red and blue Interstate shield was adopted.

Reported by Kathleen Paluso, cars.com

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GRAB BAG
Look at unprocessed sign images soon to be added to Lin's collection.

TRAFFIC SIGNS: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Try this interactive quiz to determine how much you know about international road signs.