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Perry, Oklahoma: Folk Art Protest Signs

Hand-made signs erected in the early 1990s express farmer David Nemechek's anger at those who did him wrong. In 2012, signs were down during highway widening; one still standing in 2019.

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Perry, Oklahoma folk art protest signs

Saw the signs and looked it up in the archives of The Oklahoman. Apparently in 1993, the sheriff, accused in the signs of wrongdoing, won a libel lawsuit against the Nemecheks and the next year had their property seized to satisfy the judgment. According to the signs, Mildred Nemechek was murdered, but I could find no obituary.

[T. Pemberton, 09/06/2004]
Folk Art Protest Signs

I drove by the signs on the way to Hooker in Aug of 1994. What the signs are, (I spent at least half an hour reading and filming with both 35mm and video). The guy is saying there was some kind of conspiracy as to which some of the locals killed his cattle and if I remember correctly, one member of his family. Apparently, he thinks that local law enforcement was in on it and did nothing.

In order to make any sense of all the signs, you have to take the time and read all of them. There are about 25 or 30 of them. They run about an eighth of a mile. The old man was plowing his field the day I was there, and he just kept up and didn't pay me any mind. I also parked on the side road where the other guy did. However, it was just to get off the main road. I don't remember seeing the other signs put up by the authorities. It was an interesting and entertaining half hour. That is why I travel the back roads...to see the Real America...

[Jerry Scott, 06/30/2003]

Protest signs.

Folk Art Protest Signs

This fascinating "outsider art display/polemic" was misidentified on your site as the X-Files Ranch. It's merely a Czech farmer's way of getting his version of the events out the same way Burma Shave sold shaving cream. He encourages passersby to park, though official Noble county road signs indicate otherwise.

[Don Jankiewicz, 04/27/2002]

Tipster Jerry Scott adds: "The guy is saying there was some kind of conspiracy as to which some of the locals killed his cattle and if I remember correctly, one member of his family. Apparently, he thinks that local law enforcement was in on it and did nothing. In order to make any sense of all the signs, you have to take the time and read all of them. There are about 25 or 30 of them. They run about an eighth of a mile."

X-Files Sign Farm

Perry, Oklahoma, is located mid-way between Oklahoma City and the Kansas border off of I-35. Just east of Perry (I estimate two or three miles), on the north side of Highway 64, there is what I call the "X-Files Sign Farm".

What it is, is dozens of homemade signs and billboards, some of them going back decades and others apparently very recent, crying out continuing tale of oppression and woe in regard to the belief (of the owner? perhaps generations of his offspring?) that (he/they) are under attack by Satanic Forces and Witchcraft, both of which are apparently headquartered in the Noble Co. courthouse, in Perry, the county seat. The same courthouse, incidentally, at which mass murderer Timothy McVay was detained after he bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

The first time I saw it, I could almost feel the cross-hairs of a rifle sight trained on me from the fortress-like house/compound on top of the rise in the middle of the field of signs. This was after I pulled off onto a side road adjacent to the property to look at the signs and snap a couple of pictures. (Of course, being in a plain grey van with U.S. Govt. plates and a camera didn't add to my sense of security!

Whatever you do, don't stop on the shoulder of the highway itself: There are signs from the County Sheriff and the Highway Patrol which let you know -- in no uncertain terms -- that there's a zero-tolerance policy about stopping and gawking at the signs anywhere on the highway right-of-way.

[John Carlson, 12/26/2000]

Folk Art Protest Signs

Address:
US Hwy 64, Perry, OK
Directions:
I-35 exit 186. Drive east around six miles on US 64, through Perry. North side, just west of CR 150.
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Nearby Offbeat Places

Oklahoma's Longest Continuously Operating Gas StationOklahoma's Longest Continuously Operating Gas Station, Perry, OK - 4 mi.
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In the region:
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