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The drive from Portland to Seattle just became a little less like visiting Truth Social. That’s because the infamous “Uncle Sam” billboard along I-5 in Napavine, Wash.—a source of roadside right-wing deep thoughts since the 1960s—now bears a much simpler message.
NATIVE LAND
#CHEHALIS
It’s both a land acknowledgment and, literally, “land back,” albeit at a price: the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation purchased the 3.5-acre commercial property on which the billboard sits in June for $2.5 million cash. As Kai Uyehara of the Seattle Times reported then, the tract is historically significant to the tribe inasmuch as it was theirs until the 19th century, and also has developmental value.
But to most people who pass through the Centralia/Chehalis corridor while travelling between Oregon and Washington, it’s all about the billboard. The new message went live on Oct. 23, with the Centralia Chronicle sharing a screenshot of a Facebook post from tribal chair Dustin Klatush featuring both a picture and the simple celebratory comment “Let’s gooooooo.”
(Klatush’s original Facebook post appears to be deleted or no longer public; he did not reply to multiple requests from WW for comment.)
Originally erected by local turkey and cattle farmer Al Hamilton, with several changes of location through the decades, the billboard was ostensibly an advertisement for Hamilton’s farm, but a bigger platform for his sloganeering, which ran the gamut from snarky political incorrectness and anti-government rants to racism, conspiracy theories and racist conspiracy theories.
“WHERE’S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?” was of course about President Barack Obama, while a timeless classic from the ‘80s read: “Evergreen State College: Home of Environmental Terrorists and Homos?” Hamilton’s missives were originally inspired by the John Birch Society, and, as Leah Sottile of Hill Country News wrote in 2024, fit all too well into the region’s political ethos.
But now that’s over. After Hamilton died in 2004, his family members kept up the tradition (“OH, NO! A VIRUS. QUICK – BURN THE BILL OF RIGHTS!,” it read in 2020), but it eventually tapered off. Prior to the sale, the billboard’s messages had been unchanged for several years:
“HOW MANY AMERICANS WILL WE LEAVE BEHIND IN UKRAINE?” (southbound)
and
“NO ONE DIED IN WW2 SO YOU COULD SHOW PAPERS TO BUY FOOD!” (northbound).
Jeff Warnke, the Chehalis tribe’s director of government and public relations, told KUOW radio in Seattle that he didn’t know how often the billboard might be changed (if ever). And, as of earlier this week, the southbound side remained a blank. Warnke, who did not return a call from WW, also implied that this won’t be the Chehalis’s last purchase. “The tribe is restoring its homeland,” he said. “Their land was stolen from them 150-200 years ago, and now they’re buying it back one piece at a time.”
You could put that on a billboard.
