You can go back in time and look at the 2008 view and see the guerilla sign too.

While I was looking, I noticed that there is barbed wire around the pole that supports the sign, to prevent people from climbing up. But it's only on the pole that's in the middle of the freeway, not the one that is near the side of the road. Clearly not a lot of thought was put into this sign!

If I recall the story correctly, Caltrans replaced the guerrilla sign with an official one in the same location, and returned the replica to the artist.

Yeah, I think they mention that in the article. In 2008, you can see the original. In the most recent picture, you can see the official replacement.

I mean they replaced it back in ~2001 so 2008 was the official version. Not that it makes a real difference.

> More than eight years after Ankrom’s sign went up, he got call from a friend who noticed some workers taking it down.

Ah, okay.

Unfortunately, they didn't return it to the artist :(

They didn't know where it came from so they just junked it.

It looks like they took hints from his suggested design!