What Happened to Sioux City's Iconic Welcome Sign and Its Future

Sioux City’s iconic “Welcome” sign currently exists in pieces: the main structure sits in a local storage unit, while its blue flame and Reddy Kilowatt mascot have been salvaged. Efforts are underway by local residents to restore the sign to look more like it did in the 1950s and find a prominent new home visible from the interstate.

For more than 60 years, the “Welcome to Sioux City” sign served as a skyline staple atop the old Iowa Public Service building near I-29. As KTIV reported, the sign finally vanished from the skyline a year ago after MidAmerican Energy vacated the Dace Avenue building, a structure that may eventually face demolition.

The disappearance of the sign marks more than just the loss of neon tubing. For decades, the sign functioned as a visual handshake for travelers entering the city, blending corporate branding with civic pride. Now, the survival of that legacy depends on a few dedicated locals.

The salvaged pieces of a neon legacy

The sign didn’t survive as a single unit. Instead, it was dismantled, with its most recognizable components finding separate refuges. The “blue flame,” which originally symbolized the natural gas services of the utility company, was saved by local historian George Wakeman. It eventually found its way to Darren Maurer, a veteran of the sign business for 35 years.

Maurer’s work on the flame was a labor of restoration. He stripped away dirt and loose paint, removing the original tube supports to reveal the structure beneath. To bring the relic back to life, another artisan repaired the glass and refilled it with argon gas, which glows when stimulated by electricity. The scale of the piece is imposing; at roughly 11 to 12 feet tall, it dwarfs the average person.

Then there is Reddy Kilowatt, the corporate spokesman for electricity generation. Once visible from vast distances atop the Dace Avenue building, Reddy has transitioned from a skyline landmark to a street-level curiosity. He now resides in the former Iowa State University Design West building on Historic Fourth Street.

We the People: Where did Sioux City’s iconic ‘Welcome’ sign go — and could it return?

“I just started getting worried about what the future of this sign was going to be and I didn’t want to see it go away,” says Skip Perley.

A dollar purchase and a vision for the future

While the flame and the mascot were salvaged, the bulk of the “Welcome” sign followed a different path. Skip Perley, a Sioux City native, and his wife Cathy purchased the last version of the sign for a single dollar. It currently sits in a local storage unit, awaiting a second act.

Perley isn’t looking for a museum display; he wants the sign to return to the public eye. He has envisioned a placement similar to the Hollywood sign—a bold installation that catches the eye of motorists. However, the path to re-installation is blocked by the complexities of urban planning and civic aesthetics.

The search for a location has hit a snag with city preferences. Perley notes that officials are hesitant to place the sign too close to the Floyd Monument, fearing the neon relic would distract from the monument. The goal remains a spot of prominence that is clearly visible from the interstate, restored to look as it did in the 1950s.

The tension between progress and preservation

To MidAmerican Energy, the building on Dace Avenue was a vacated asset. To the people of Sioux City, the sign atop that building was a landmark.

When a sign is moved to a storage unit, the city loses a piece of its shared visual language. The effort to bring the sign back is an attempt to reclaim that identity from the scrap heap.

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