On December 20, 1979, the Washington Court of Appeals confirms that the Uncle Sam billboard located on private property just off I-5 a few miles south of Chehalis (Lewis County) does not violate the state's Scenic Vistas Act of 1971. The litigation stems from the property owner’s displays of conservative messages on his billboard, which includes a large drawing of Uncle Sam. The sign is also careful to advertise (in smaller print) the owner’s farming business located on the property, and the court agrees that it complies with the requirements of the act. The Washington Supreme Court will decline to hear the state's appeal, leaving the billboard and its messages a landmark on I-5 for decades to come.
A Sign Is Born
It began with the construction of Interstate 5 (I-5) through Washington in the 1950s and 1960s. The construction south of Chehalis cut a path directly through Alfred "Al" Hamilton's (1920-2004) 200-acre property, and he was angered by what he saw as a low payment from the state for his land. After the freeway opened Hamilton began leasing space for billboards on his property near the highway, but his enterprise was interrupted by the national 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which sought to make drives on the nation's highways more scenic by limiting junkyards and signs alongside the roads. Though states were not required to follow the act, they were threatened with a reduction in federal highway funding if they failed to comply. Washington followed the new law, and state officials began pressuring Hamilton and his lessees to take down the signs on his property.
In response, Hamilton built his own sign on his property east of I-5. The first mention of it appears in Centralia's Chronicle on November 24, 1967. Compared to later iterations, the introductory sign was rather plain. There was no Uncle Sam portrait for which the billboard would soon become known, and its message was short and simple: "There are NO billboards in Яussia" (with a backward R as used in the Russian alphabet). A smaller message in the lower left corner advertised his turkey business. The state promptly filed a nuisance action in an effort to have the sign removed, but lost.
Hamilton built a larger sign in 1968 that measured 41 by 13 feet and stood 26 feet high. He added an enormous (and appropriately somber) sketch of Uncle Sam to one side of the billboard and used 2-foot-high block letters to display his messages, almost always conservative, and often political. The billboard was now a two-sided, V-shaped broadside that could be seen from either direction on the freeway. Previously only northbound drivers on I-5 could see the sign, but now drivers traveling both north and south could enjoy the view. However, Hamilton continued to advertise his farming operations on the sign, albeit in far smaller print. It became known as the Uncle Sam billboard, though it also was called the Hamilton sign.
The Scenic Vistas Act
In 1971 the legislature passed the Highway Advertising Control Act-Scenic Vistas Act, commonly called the Scenic Vistas Act. This law had more teeth than an earlier law regulating billboards on Washington’s highways, and by the end of the year the state had filed suit against Hamilton, alleging that his billboard violated the act. In relevant part, the act provided: "It is declared to be the policy of the state that no signs which are visible from the main traveled way of the interstate system, primary system, or scenic system shall be erected or maintained except the following types … signs advertising activities on the property on which they are located" (RCW 47.42.040).
The case languished for more than two years in superior court, with the state taking little action to move it forward. Hamilton updated his messages on the billboard frequently, once every few weeks on average. Then he realized that the state had him on a technicality. The law required the sign to advertise his business on the property where it was located. The sign was located on Hamilton's property east of I-5, but his farm operations were located on his property west of the freeway. He negotiated an agreement with the state to take down the sign and did so in August 1974, but he hardly caved in. The agreement called for the state to pay the cost of the demolition, and there was a hint that the billboard might go back up nearby. Sure enough, by the end of October it was rising again west of the freeway.
The state again filed suit against Hamilton in June 1975, and over the next two-plus years took dozens of pictures of the signs, which it introduced into evidence when the case went to trial in Lewis County Superior Court in November 1977. Some examples included: "Gun control is a step toward 'people control,'" "Don't give canal to Panama. Give them (U.S. Secretary of State) Kissinger," "Should we trust computer balloting?" "Women are meant to be cherished not liberated," and "Get U.S. out of the United Nations." A handful of signs during these years advertised his business (which by this time had switched to cattle) but even these messages made his political views clear: "Non-communist straw for sale," and "Non-red or pink springer (a pregnant cow) for sale" (State v. Hamilton, 927, 929-931). A six-member jury found in favor of Hamilton, noting that the billboard was within 50 feet of his operations and that its intended purpose was to advertise his cattle business, not to promote his beliefs.
The state had argued in the trial that the primary purpose of the sign was to promote Hamilton's political and religious views, and it took this position again as the main basis for its argument to the Washington Court of Appeals. On December 20, 1979, the court issued its ruling affirming the trial court's decision. While the court agreed that a large portion of the billboard was devoted to Hamilton's commentary as opposed to advertising his business – even by the most generous calculation, the advertisements took up only 12.5 percent of the space on the sign – it did not disagree with the trial court's finding that the sign's purpose was to advertise his farm operations. The court noted that the applicable section of the statute placed no other restriction on the sign other than it was required to advertise activity on the property on which it was located and added that the Uncle Sam portrayal was an effective tool in drawing attention to the billboard.
Though some commentary has since been written that the decision was based on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees free speech, the Court of Appeals was careful to point out in its decision that this wasn't the case. Nevertheless, the court did briefly address First Amendment issues in rejecting the state's primary purpose argument, pointing out that in addition to there being no mention of the term in the statute or the accompanying sections of the Washington Administrative Code, there were no guidelines provided in the statute to determine what the primary purpose of a sign might be. The court acknowledged that the question raised First Amendment issues because there was little objective way to determine the primary purpose of a billboard, leading to the potential of a restriction of free speech.
Later Years
The state appealed the decision to the Washington Supreme Court, which denied its petition for review in April 1980. Hamilton's displays continued to delight and dismay tens of thousands of I-5 drivers daily. One of the highlights of the 1980s came after a lesbian-gay film festival at the Evergreen State College in Olympia in 1988. In response, the following missive appeared on his billboard: "Evergreen State College – Home of Environmental Terrorists and Homos?" ("Lewis County's 'Sam' ..."), generating more attention than the sign had seen for awhile. It also kicked off a spate of letters, both pro and con, to the nearby Chronicle in Centralia. One writer asserted "Those Dr. Jeckel (sic)-Professor Hyde guttersnipes are trying to rearrange society … trying to promote the idea that hedonistic relationships is (sic again) quality academic work" while another reassured the paper that his son, finishing his second year at the college, was doing fine: "He has not become an environmental terrorist, and he is not homosexual. I asked his girlfriend" ("Lewis County 'Sam'...").
Hamilton left the farm in his later years. He took a long sailboat trip around the world and lived on the boat off the coast of Alaska. The sign was managed by his children and grandchildren. In 1995, he sold most of his property to National Frozen Food Corporation, which included the site where the billboard was located. The potential demise of the sign drew a surprising amount of sympathetic public reaction, and Hamilton subsequently moved it back east of the freeway on one of his remaining parcels of land. In its final location, the sign was located east of the northbound onramp from Rush Road to I-5 at Exit 72, just within the northern edge of the Napavine city limits. Family members continued to maintain the sign after he died in 2004, though its messages were changed less frequently than in the past. But far from being dated, the displays remained timely and continued to attract attention on both the freeway and the internet, which at various times had both a pro-and anti-billboard website, as well as a Twitter (later X) account devoted solely to the messages.
By 2025, the same message had been on the board for at least three years: "How many Americans will we leave behind in Ukraine?" for northbound drivers, and "No one died in WW 2 so you could show papers to buy food!" ("Property With 'Iconic'…") for those headed south. In March the 3.5-acre property that included the billboard was listed for sale by a Chehalis realtor for $2.5 million. There were no conditions or restrictions about the billboard in the sales contract, and once again the question of its survival hung in the air. It was answered on June 6, 2025, when the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation closed on the property for its asking price. A tribal representative confirmed that the conservative messages would be coming down, though he said the billboard itself might remain: "[We’ve] had a good time thinking of crazy stuff we could put up there" ("Uncle Sam Billboard Along I-5 …").
