The History of the WASHTO Gavel
Pre-2002 – The symbolic nature of passing the leadership from one individual to another has taken many forms over the years. Whether it involves a swearing in, crowning, or passing of an item of value, these leadership changes are important to any organization. Prior to 2002, WASHTO did not have an actual gavel to pass from President to President. Each past president was presented a plaque with a gavel on it representing their term in office.
2002 – 2003 – Sleeter Dover (Wyoming) is serving as WASHTO President and Michael Behrens (Texas) is serving as the Vice President. President Dover feels that WASHTO needs a symbol to commemorate the transition of leadership. He has observed that incoming President Mike Behrens walks each morning, exploring the cities of the various AASHTO and WASHTO meetings. During these walks, Behrens regularly finds rocks that interest him and brings them back home. An idea strikes President Dover and at the next WASHTO Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City in the summer of 2003, President Dover presents incoming President Behrens a large rock (about 12 inches long, 8 inches wide and 4 inches deep) that was taken from the Snake River in Wyoming as the new WASHTO Gavel. Thus, the tradition of the WASHTO Gavel begins.
2003 – 2004 – President Behrens believes that each President should add something to the gavel to commemorate their service as WASHTO President and he has the “new gavel” (a.k.a. “The Rock”) cored by the TxDOT Laboratory. The core was then polished and a handle attached; thereby creating a true gavel for WASHTO. The newly styled gavel was presented to incoming WASHTO President Tom Norton (Colorado) at the 2004 Annual Meeting in Kalispell, Montana.
2004 – 2005 – President Norton decides that the gavel needs an appropriate container to house it between meetings. The Colorado DOT staff crafts a new wooden box to hold the gavel. President Norton presents the gavel in its new wooden box to incoming President Dave Spryncznatyk (yes, that is the correct spelling) (North Dakota) at the 2005 Annual Meeting in Omaha.
2005 – 2006 – President Spryncznatyk decides to leave North Dakota’s mark on the new gavel tradition in the form of an elaborate fringed leather wrap placed on the handle to represent the Western and Native American Culture of North Dakota and the Western States. President Spryncznatyk presents incoming WASHTO President Victor Mendez (Arizona) the newly ornamented gavel at the 2006 Annual Meeting in Honolulu.
2006 – 2007 – President Mendez contemplates how he can best continue the gavel tradition and quickly realizes that the gavel is just ceremonial in its present condition. All gavels should have a block to strike against when conducting meetings. So, President Mendez has a sound block created for the WASHTO Gavel. President Mendez presents the gavel, its case and the new sound block to incoming President Gary Ridley (Oklahoma) at the 2007 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada.
2007 – 2008 – Oklahoma, steeped in tradition, takes on the challenge to find something unique to add to the gavel legacy. While Colorado had done an outstanding job building a beautiful container for the gavel and sound block, President Ridley finds it a little cumbersome to carry. In addition, the box was constructed with a handle on the top of the box. During transport, the handle was torn from the top causing damage to the lid. As their contribution, Oklahoma repaired the lid of the box by insetting a cross section of a Redbud limb and attached Redbud tree handles to the box to solve this problem. Oklahoma designated the Redbud as their State Tree in 1937. These Redbud handles add a piece of Oklahoma to the gavel’s history. President Ridley presented the gavel to incoming President Rhonda Faught (New Mexico) at the 2008 Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon.
July 2008 – December 2008 – President Faught served only a short time as WASHTO President. Her term was cut short by plans for retirement. No matter the length of the term of office, the tradition must continue so President Faught added a piece of red velvet to the box and pinned a New Mexico Department of Transportation and a Roadrunner lapel pin to the velvet. The roadrunner, or chaparral, was designated the State Bird of New Mexico in 1949. President Faught passed the gavel to Vice President Will Kempton by United States Mail. President Kempton (California) became WASHTO President upon receiving this instrument of power.
January 2009 – July 2009 – President Kempton served with distinction as WASHTO President serving out the remaining 2008 to 2009 term. Shortly after his term as President expired, Will left his job at Caltrans and business kept him from attending the Annual WASHTO Meeting in Seattle, Washington. Kevin Hanley, serving as WASHTO Secretary, represented President Kempton and presented the gavel to incoming President Paula Hammond (Washington). It should be noted that nothing was added to the gavel at this time. Recognizing this oversight, California was contacted in 2011 to see if they wished to add something to the gavel history. On June 15, 2011, a Caltrans lapel pin was received and it was added to the red velvet to represent Will Kempton’s tenure as WASHTO president.
2009 – 2010 – President Hammond took office and, of course, wanted to leave her history with the gavel and astutely noticed that if the gavel was ever separated from its case, no one would know it was the WASHTO Gavel. Wanting to make sure everyone knew the gavel belonged to WASHTO; she had a gavel cap made that carried the WASHTO logo and name. President Hammond presented the gavel to incoming President Amadeo Saenz (Texas) at the 2010 Annual Meeting in Bismarck, North Dakota.
2010 – 2011 – With Texas having been involved at the beginning of the WASHTO Gavel’s history, it was important to make another large stride to enhance the WASHTO Gavel with all of its many improvements. Upon receiving the gavel, Texas noticed that the gavel was “packed” in the case with “bubble wrap.” This seemed to be unacceptable for the instrument symbolizing the prestigious leadership of WASHTO. President Saenz tasked TxDOT employees to design and manufacture a suitable case modification to properly hold the gavel. Staff created the Texas Mesquite Gavel and Sound Block Nesting Blocks. These nesting blocks adequately secure the gavel in the case. During this time, Texas also replaced the plaques on the top of the box with ones that included the year in which each president served WASHTO. President Saenz presented the gavel to incoming President Francis Ziegler (North Dakota) at the 2011 Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City.
2011 – 2012 – President Ziegler observed that there were numerous displays of the WASHTO states on various gavel box items, but he also noticed that it was difficult to identify some of the members due to the size of the display. President Ziegler decided to have a brass plaque created with a large map recognizing each of the 18 WASHTO states and their respective state capitals placed on the inside of the carrying case’s lid. When the carrying case is open to display the gavel and sound block, this map prominently identifies the states that make up WASHTO. President Ziegler presented the WASHTO Gavel to incoming President John F. Cox (Wyoming) at the 2012 Annual Meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
2012 – 2013 – President Cox noticed that the gavel’s head lacked decoration. To remedy this situation, he had an image of “Old Steamboat,” a legendary Wyoming bucking horse and rider etched into the gavel. Though it is not known whether this decoration will improve the gavel’s sound when it is used, it will certainly enhance its appearance and suggest the rugged spirit of the West common to WASHTO’s members. President Cox presented the WASHTO Gavel to incoming president John Halikowski (Arizona) at the 2013 Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
2013-2014 – President John Halikowski wanted to show the partnership and solidarity of the WASHTO states, and so he had the eighteen WASHTO state seals engraved in beautiful copper from Arizona, the Copper State, and placed on the front of the wooden gavel box. He also repaired the hasp, which had been broken at some time in the past. President Halikowski presented the gavel in its newly-ornamented box to incoming WASHTO President Malcolm Dougherty (California) at the 2014 Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
2014-2015 – President Malcolm Dougherty, having completed the recent adoption of the California Strategic Management Plan, decided that WASHTO needed a clearly defined and articulated Mission Statement. In order to create the new Mission Statement, President Dougherty gleamed key phrases from the purpose statement on the WASHTO website. The newly created Mission Statement reads, “The Departments of Transportation and Highway Departments of WASHTO commit to contributing to national policies on transportation issues that support efficient and effective transportation systems, economic competitiveness and environmental integrity.” The new Mission Plaque which adorns the back of the box was made by the Caltrans Division of Equipment. President Dougherty presented the WASHTO gavel to incoming President Brian Ness (Idaho) at the 2015 Annual Meeting in Boise, Idaho.
2015- 2016 – President Ness examined the map gracing the inside of the gavel case and discovered that it did not include anything uniquely identifying each state. Because Idaho is the Gem State where such items are valued and of great importance, he resolved to rectify the untenable situation by affixing the “state gem” for each of the 18 states to its proper geographic location on the map (Alaska: Jade, Arizona: Turquoise, California: Benitoite, Colorado: Aquamarine, Hawaii: Black Coral, Idaho: Star Garnet, Montana: Agate, Nebraska: Prairie Agate, Nevada: Black Fire Opal, New Mexico: Turquoise, North Dakota: Rose Quartz, Oklahoma: Barite, Oregon: Sunstone, South Dakota: Fairburn Agate, Texas: Blue Topaz, Utah: Topaz, Washington: Petrified Wood, Wyoming: Jade). President Ness bestowed the impressive WASHTO Gavel in its newly bejeweled case to incoming President Carlos Braceras at the 2016 Annual Meeting in Laramie, Wyoming.
2016-2017 – When it came time to decide what Utah’s contribution would be to this great tradition, we took a long, hard look at the gavel and the carrying box. The first thing we noticed is there isn’t much room left for anything new. There’s a little space here and there, but nothing that could accommodate what we wanted to do. So we created some new space. Borrowing an idea from hockey’s Stanley Cup Trophy, we added another layer to the gavel carrying case. This new layer is made of Utah copper, upon which is engraved a series of etchings showing how transportation in the American West has evolved through the years. From walking, to riding in covered wagons, to steam locomotives, to modern airplanes, to a representation of the kind of transportation you might see in the future, you’ll find it here on Utah’s addition to the WASHTO gavel carrying case.
2017-2018 – President Michael Tooley of Montana received the gavel in Juneau, Alaska at the end of President Braceras’ term. Like President Braceras, he noticed that there wasn’t much (if any) room for something new. Realizing virtually all of WASHTO is traditionally in Indian Country, the president felt that this historic fact should be recognized by the organization. As a result, a traditional beaded handle cover was added to the gavel itself. It was fitting that the Gavel was transferred to incoming President Roger Millar in Rapid City, South Dakota in the shadows of the sacred Black Hills, which has been inhabited by Native peoples for thousands of years.
