I’ve spent nearly three-quarters of my life on Muncie’s west side just a stone’s throw from Yorktown. That means the intersection of North Morrison and West Petty has been part of my daily rhythm for as long as I can remember. Once I started noticing Indiana’s right-of-way markers scattered along the roadside in 2023, I realized something peculiar: I couldn’t recall a single time when the little monument on the southwest corner of that intersection wasn’t broken and toppled over. That nagging thought stuck with me, and eventually, I had to find out when it happened. That’s where this pointless deep dive begins.

I considered myself fairly observant for more than thirty years, but I somehow managed to spend those decades completely oblivious to just how many INDOT right-of-way markers are scattered along Indiana’s thoroughfares. The R/W monuments are more than just roadside curiosities: they outline the state’s right-of-way for operational use. In simple terms, they tell crews where to mow and where they can safely park maintenance vehicles or heavy equipment. They’re not survey markers and they don’t define property lines¹, but their placement is no accident.

Right-of-way markers are most commonly seen along state roads and interstates, but they also pop up elsewhere in a few situations. The first two involve cases where the state temporarily takes over a city or county road to rebuild or improve it. Even if INDOT plans to hand the road back once the work wraps up, it still installs markers to define its right-of-way during construction². The third scenario is a little different and occurs when a roadway is part of a County–Federal Aid route³.

Fortunately, INDOT doesn’t take its markers lightly. Each is required to have a “smooth, workmanlike finish” and must be clearly stamped near the base with the manufacturer’s trademark or initials and the date it was made. Beneath the surface, they’re anchored with at least four approved spacers and put through rigorous strength tests to make sure they can handle the elements. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t guess that from looking at the number of markers that have been taken out by passing cars. INDOT markers may be tough, but they’re no match for a guy in a hat behind the wheel of an old Dodge sedan. 

I have a hunch that’s exactly what happened to the marker at Morrison and Petty- it likely met its end courtesy of a wayward vehicle. Before I could pin down when it happened, though, I needed to answer a more basic question: why was a marker there in the first place? I vaguely recalled a project to widen Morrison Road a few years back, when a roundabout was built about a mile south.

As it turns out, my hunch was spot on: back in 2014, Muncie’s Morrison Road underwent a major $3.8 million upgrade that expanded the stretch between West Jackson Street and Keller Road from two lanes to three and added a sidewalk⁴. The project had been in the works for over a decade before kicking off in 2011 with the construction of a roundabout⁵. I loved it! I drove a stick shift when it was installed. Being able to glide through without constantly working the clutch in stop-and-go traffic felt like pure freedom in a way I’d never experienced.

At any rate, state funding must have played a role in the roundabout’s creation since the INDOT right-of-way markers started appearing along the corridor around that time. Here’s Google Street View’s capture of the southwest corner of Morrison and Petty in August 2013. There’s a big pile of dirt, but there was no marker yet. 

The intersection’s next close-up came courtesy of Street View cameras in July 2019. In the image, the right-of-way marker stands proudly beside a manhole and a stop sign, unblemished and exactly where it should be.

When Google’s Street View car rolled through again in November 2021, the marker was still standing tall and untouched. Nearly a decade after the road project wrapped up, it hadn’t budged an inch! In a world where curbs get chipped and signs get bent overnight, the concrete post had managed to hold its ground.

Unfortunately, that picture-perfect streak came to an end by July 2023. Sometime between the last Street View pass and then, the marker was struck and left leaning. Curious, I dove into newspaper archives to see if any reports mentioned a crash at the intersection. I couldn’t find a passing mention, but let’s be honest: whoever knocked over that little concrete monument probably didn’t think twice. It’s not exactly the kind of “accident” someone rushes to report. More likely, they just kept driving. Drunk, perhaps.

In the end, my digging didn’t lead to a neat, satisfying answer. Instead, I’m stuck with a wide timeframe and a crooked concrete post, but also a better understanding of something I’d overlooked for decades. That’s part of what I love about these dumb local mysteries: a toppled marker on a busy corner isn’t headline news, but it’s a tangible thread connecting everyday life to the systems that shape our communities behind the scenes.

For most people, the R/W marker at Morrison and Petty is invisible background noise. Next time I roll through the intersection on my way to Panda Express, Jimmy John’s, Walmart, or wherever else, though, I’ll notice more than a leaning post. I’ll see the need behind its location, speculate about the forces that bent it, and remind myself of the everyday rhythm of a place I’ve called home for nearly my entire life.

Sources Cited
1 Surveying Along State Roads (2020, January 24). DLZ. Web. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
2 Indiana Department of Transportation Standard Specifications (2013). The State of Indiana. Web. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
3 (See footnote 2). 
4 Gibson, R. (2014, September 23). Morrison Road work to shift north. The Muncie Star Press. p. A4. 
5 Gibson, R. (2014, August 14). Part of Morrison Road will reopen. The Muncie Star Press. p. A3.