Salem, ODOT Spend Six Years To Install Misspelled New Sign

By Staff

The newly installed sign should read "capital," not "capitol."

SALEM, Ore. — A botched welcome sign is the talk of Salem as the city prepares for tourist season. On April 9, 2025, a collaborative project between the City of Salem and the Oregon Department of Transportation was completed: a new welcome sign at Portland Road and Hyacinth Street NE. Lighting and the kind of landscaping one might expect around such a display were next put into place. This was a project six years in the making.

The problem? The sign was misspelled during fabrication, yet no one caught the error before it was installed, photographed and promoted.

Capital and capitol are homophones, meaning they sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Among other meanings, a capital is the city in a country or state where the capitol building is located. Capitol means the building where a legislative body meets.

With a price tag nearing $79,000, the sign was funding by the City of Salem using transient lodging tax funds, which are collected from guests of hotels and motels.

Residents took to social media to state that they see the sign as reflective of Oregon's failed education system, which is near the bottom of the pile nationally.

The error will be corrected in June, say officials.