Marker swept under the carpet

The Jefferson Davis marker beside the Peace Arch was quietly removed from its spot beside the Peace Arch last month for “safekeeping,” according to a letter from state secretary of transportation Douglas MacDonald to the Governor.

In his letter to Gary Locke, MacDonald said his department’s research revealed that the Daughters of the Confederacy had gotten state permission to place markers at the borders with Oregon and British Columbia in 1939. However, their application to rename Highway 99 the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway had been turned down.

Based on this, MacDonald wrote that recent efforts to rename the highway were pointless and suggested the state transportation commission “not take up the question of removing a highway name designation that never was.”

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