FORKS — Every day, cars slow and pull over at the edge of Forks. Families pile out, friends line up and cameras snap as visitors pose with the town’s famous “Welcome to Forks” sign.
For some, it’s a bucket-list stop tied to Twilight. For others, it’s simply the perfect roadside memory of a trip to the West End.
But behind the thousands of photos, T-shirts and stickers featuring the iconic logo is a story that, until recently, Google didn’t know.
The designer is Mary Engel Springer Donovan.
In June, Donovan sent a message to the Forks Forum: “I know who designed it. It was me, but Google doesn’t know it. How can I get that info to Google?”
She had a simple wish: “I guess I just want whoever Googles the question ‘Who designed the Welcome to Forks sign’ to know that I did. It’s a pretty famous sign and I’m proud of it!”
Donovan’s story goes back to 1986, when Forks City Council member Rich Hsu suggested a logo contest for new welcome signs. The Forks Chamber of Commerce later organized it, and Mary — then known as Mary Engel Springer — sat at her kitchen table, sketching design after design.
“I wanted to include everything that means what the West End is,” she recalled. “So in the design you can see the water, with fish and the ocean and rivers. Logging is represented with the tree and the logging truck.”
Her design won. The prize, she thinks, was about $75. But what she really won was a lasting mark on her hometown.
The first sign went up at the north entrance in June 1989, although not in the spot where it stands today. The south sign followed in February 1990.
Both have been moved over the years, especially the north sign, which drew such crowds of Twilight fans that city crews carved a trail to it.
Later, with concerns from the city and with the help of the state Department of Transportation, it was relocated to its current spot.
The signs themselves were a community project, built with help from Olympic Corrections Center, the Young Women’s group at the Church of Latter Day Saints, and donations of time and materials from local businesses and residents.
And the photos? They never stop.
At 7 a.m. on a recent Saturday, three cars were already lined up. Even long-haul drivers can’t resist — one fuel truck driver once pulled over his rig just to get a snapshot.
The signs will be extra busy this week as the annual Forever Twilight in Forks Festival gets underway Thursday through Sunday. This year will celebrate 20 years of Twilight and the 10th year of the festival.
VIT tickets (Very Important Twilighters) — about 400 of them — sold out last January, but there are many other free events. For a full schedule, go to twilightfestival.com.
Twilight saga actors attending this year are Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli and Erik Odom. A special guest this year is Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer, who will answer questions with fans on Thursday evening and host another event that was done by a lottery system.
Donovan is hoping to get a photo with Meyer this week, at the sign, but there was no word on whether or not that would happen.
Nearly four decades later, Donovan’s kitchen-table design has become a worldwide symbol of Forks. And now, for the record — and for Google — it’s official: the famous Forks sign logo was designed by Mary Engel Springer Donovan.
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Christi Baron is the editor of the Forks Forum of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Sequim Gazette. She can be reached by email at christi.baron@forksforum.com.
