Dane County seeks nominations for Underrepresented Communities Historical Markers Program

MADISON, Wis. -- You know those historical markers you sometimes see on the side of the road? Dane County has created its own historical markers program, seeking locations important to underrepresented communities.

The Dane County Department of Planning and Development is looking for nominations from the African-American, Latin-American, Asian-American, Indigenous-American, and LGBTQ communities.

"All these folks have been in Dane County a long time, in the case of the Ho-Chunk going back 12,000 years," said Brian Standing, senior planner with the department of planning and development.  "And they're not represented very well in the historic markers that we have around the county."

Standing said any site or location of importance can be nominated, whether a historical event happened there 100 years ago or two weeks ago.

It's important to note the Underrepresented Communities Historical Markers Program is different from the Dane County Historical Society, which also does historical markers.

Standing says while there are a lot of historical markers already in Madison, the department is hoping to see nominations for sites around Dane County.

"We're also particularly interested in places that are outside of the City of Madison," said Standing. "There's a lot of historic markers inside the city, but we're interested from hearing from people from all over the county."

You can submit a location for nomination here .

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