WEST CHESTER

Hal Colliver’s West Chester farmstead is like the Iowa 80 Truckstop: its big, its blingy, and everyone really should pull in at least once. When you do, expect to meet a few characters.

On Tuesday, Oct. 29, the creak and squeal of metal filled the ears at Colliver’s property. Wind gusts activated every swinging sign as an informal car club from Cedar Rapids arrived in their rides, both classic and conventional, to check out the spectacle.

“It’s unbelievable, isn’t it?” one club member said as we stood outside one of the many buildings, his eyes crawling over the advertising eye candy. “They’re telling me that at night, all of these pumps and signs are lit up.”

For both of us it was our first visit to what is known online as “Hal Colliver’s Acreage and Sign Extravaganza.” For others, including Ron and Carol, the organizers of the day’s car cruise, this was their fifth or sixth visit.

“We just like looking at it again,” Carol said. “Every time you see something different, because there’s so much.”

Ron himself collects signs, which he displays in his garage; Colliver’s property serves as a bit of inspiration. But sign collecting isn’t cheap, Carol points out, “And they’re hard to come by.”

Colliver purchased his farmstead in 1951, and his sign collection began in 1973 with a placard that said, “Enter at your own risk.”

As businesses and practices changed over the following decades, the career truck driver collected the cast-offs, assembling a veritable museum of American signage. From segregation to rail travel to phone booths, the history of our culture is cataloged in vivid color on the surface of every barn and outbuilding, inside and out.

Word has gotten around, and Colliver and his dog Lindy Lou play host to visiting groups and individuals often. He takes them through the buildings, pointing out items of special interest, including his favorite sign – a huge one for The Chicago Livestock Market – and one that he could have made a quick profit from – a round orange Gulf dealer sign he paid $20 for when similar ones go for $2,400.

Most of the signs have a story, and Colliver enjoys telling them as people look around, bedazzled. He also has a cheeky sense of humor, as a giant pair of underwear and a bottle opener that says “Take your top off” will attest.

“You first,” one of the car club members retorts when he draws attention to it.

There are signs from across the nation, but locals especially will appreciate a few: Maplecrest Turkeys (Wellman), International Harvester (Washington), West Chester South, Central Café (Keota), Brighton Fairfield Feed Store, and Ainsworth Four Corners, for example.

“I’m about the oldest thing around here, except for that old truck,” Colliver responds when I point those signs out, motioning toward the 1930 truck that has him beat by eight years. “I paid $105 for it 63 years ago. That was a lot of money back then, or it was to me.”

Colliver has lived a fascinating life, as his stories, photos on the walls, and previous media coverage indicate. His collection has taken a lifetime to accumulate, and he still occasionally picks up something new; if there are limiting factors these days, it’s both space and price.

For the most part, however, when people aren’t renting his neon-filled barn for parties, Colliver simply enjoys what life just south of West Chester has to offer. He enjoys lunch at Goodwin Dining in Wellman most days – “They serve great meals; it’s $8 for good old homecooked food” – and a weekly drink with dinner at The Well.

If he has any regrets, it’s that he didn’t catalog the date, location, and price of every piece of Americana he purchased over the years.

The Cedar Rapids car club – or rather, the “bunch of guys [that] have coffee together”—did not appear to have any regrets as they moved on to the next stop on their car cruise.

“If I know my small-town papers, and I do, because I’m from a small town,” one of them remarked, “this will be a big story.”

Hal Colliver’s Acreage and Sign Extravaganza is located at 1720 230th St., Keota. Call 319-330-9729 to schedule a visit.