Disappearing plaque resurfaces

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The Centennial Plaque has been found again.

The plaque has been lost, off and on, for the past 25 years, said Martin Link, who has spent much of the last few years wondering what ever happened to the plaque.

Link was director of Red Rock State Park in 1981 when Gallup was celebrating its centennial. During the same year, the east exchange of Interstate 40 was finished (at Mile Marker 26) and a decision was made to make the naming of the overpass part of the celebration.

So money was raised to create a 125-pound plaque about the size of an average table top to put on the overpass. The plaque simply said "Centennial Overpass 1881-1981."

But, as things went, city officials never actually got around to putting the plaque up and people forgot it was ever created.

A few years ago, however, Barbara Quiones, who was then director of the Gallup Chamber of Commerce, called Link and said she had this huge plaque in her office and wanted to know what to do with it.

"When I went to look at it, it was indeed the Centennial Plaque," he said.

Link then got in touch with Joe Athens, who was at that time director of the city's Beautification Project. Athens told him that the city had some money it could use to build the foundation and finally put the plaque up.

But then the plaque disappeared again.

By that time Quiones was no longer the chamber director and when Athens and Link went to the chamber, officials there said they knew nothing about it and hadn't seen it.

So years went by and Link again began wondering what happened to the plaque.

Link one day happened to see Quiones at Wal-Mart and asked whatever happened to the plaque and she told him that it was so big and was taking up so much room that she had some summer interns move it to the chamber's attic.

So a couple of more years pass and Link happened to see Herb Mosher, the chamber's current director, at a meeting and remembered the plaque and asked him about the plaque in the attic.

"What attic?" Mosher asked. "We have an attic?"

It turns out that yes, the chamber does have an attic, and yes, that's where the Centennial Plaque has been all of these years.

Link then got in touch with city officials again and explained the history of the plaque and again city officials said it would be a good idea to actually put it on the east overpass as everyone planned to do back in 1981.

So city crews came one day recently and picked up the plaque and took it over to the office of Ben Welch, who is the event's coordinator for the city.

And that's where the plaque now rests.

No date has been set for it to be actually installed on the overpass, but city officials expect that may happen sometime this summer.

As for what the plaque looks like, area residents will have to wait until then to find out since the city has decided not to let any photographs be taken of it at this time.

Welch said a decision was made to wait until the public unveiling of it before photographs can be taken.