Map of All Known Markers

Worn-out, heart-shaped marker by Harrison Mayes, behind the local airport in Andrews, North Carolina.

This marker was standing till a road expansion in the late nineties and was then moved to a private residency. This cross is supposed to be placed on planet Venus.

The following two articles are telling the story of this cross in Bryant, AR.

Update 2022-04-29: The cross changed locations again. According to Brent Davis, the author of the story, the former owner of the cross asked Davis for help finding a new location. Davis approached several churches, but none of them were receptive, fearing it could “send the wrong message.” The former owner offered that Davis could take the cross if he doesn’t find a place. When he attempted to arrange the move, Davis found out that the former owner has died and the cross was sold to someone who put it on their private property. So, it’s still out there, somewhere.

This cross was saved by the members of the Dalton Pike Baptist Church, when a highway expansion project got too close to it.

Archival Google Street view images show the construction and the cross moving during the years.

The Museum of Appalachia displays the most extensive collection of Henry Harrison Mayes artifacts including markers of different materials, the cast, his advertising bike, several hand painted signs, his jacket with the crosses, objects and the large map that depicts his travel routes.

Unusual brightly painted marker in Conway, Faulkner County, Arkansas. This one is supposed to be erected in Algeria in 1990. It never made it there, but it has a nice spot there in Arkansas.

The original location of the marker was one mile West around Squirrel Hill 35.090431601295116, -92.38569110761321.

There is at least one more marker in Arkansas, near Bryant, that was relocated to private property twice.

One of Henry Harrison Mayes original crosses, unpainted, still standing.

Photo by Jeff McNelley via facebook

This barn existed until 2021 when it finally collapsed. Not many photos exist online, but archival Google Street View photos document the decline.

The phrase “Prepare To Meet God” appeared twice on the barn.

This marker is the one that was featured in the 1971 National Geographic Magazine about Cumberland Gap, Kentucky.

In a discussion thread about the sign on facebook, the person who lives across the road claimed: “I’ve been talking about restoring that sign for years. It’s a landmark. The tree company messed it up when they came through and cleared the side of the road for the electric company. That’s when they moved the power lines outta the mountains a there and put them on the side of the road. I painted that sign 6 times I think when I was a teenager.”

Over the last years, the marker deteriorated even more and now most of the “heart-part” is gone and exposes its inner working.

Thanks to Lee Michael Caudill for sending an update and initially telling me about the marker.

The other photo was taken by Malcolm J. Wilson

This metal cross by Harrison Mayes doesn’t exist at its original place anymore. It got moved to the local museum in 2015, after someone asked to purchase it.

John Paulding Historical Msm, 600 Fairground Dr, Paulding, OH 45879

Here is the whole story

If someone knows the correct coordinates, please let me know.

Along U.S. 127 and Paulding County Road 424 is a cross that simply states: “Get right with God.” Amid word that the beloved cross would be removed, the past few weeks have been filled with heated emotional debate. The cross was to be picked up by the American Sign Museum located in Cincinnati, whose founder Tod Swormstedt said the acquisition was supposed to be a birthday surprise from his girlfriend, Nancy Herbert. Herbert’s friend Cate O’Hara was heading up to Bryan with her daughter when she noticed the sign off the side of the road. O’Hara, knowing Swormstedt’s involvement with the American Sign Museum, contacted Herbert to inform her of the cross. The surprise was reportedly ruined when Swormstedt was notified of it after a local newspaper ran a historic account of the cross last week. However, Thursday morning, he received news that the sign was no longer available for pickup.

“Get Right With God.”

Over the years, how many people in northwest Ohio have seen the cross made of wood and corrugated steel in Paulding County with those words on it?

What started as one cross on what was U.S. 24 (now County Road 424) in Emerald Township near Vagabond Village, has grown into four crosses with that same message.

One of Harrison Mayes heart-shaped markers not too far from his hometown, but already in Virginia.

The marker was mentioned in the book “Mountain Holiness – A Photographic Narrative” from 2003.

This poured cement heart, declaring “Praise the Lord,” (sic!) was marked by Brother Harrison Mayes (see Plates 95, 98, and 99) to be erected in Burma (now Myanmar) in the 1990s, but
we actually found it set in place along the roadway between Rose Hill and Pennington Gap, Virginia.

McCauley, D. V., Porter, L. E., & Brunner, P. P. (2003). Mountain Holiness: A photographic narrative. Univ Tennessee Press. https://utpress.org/title/mountain-holiness/

A fixed cross by Henry Harrison Mayes in Fletcher, NC next to train tracks.

A well maintained marker by Henry Harrison Mayes in Harlan, Kentucky. Photo by Lee Akers via waymarking.com

This cross was moved to its present location by Clyde Mayes, Harrison Mayes’ son, on Father’s Day, June 20, 1999.

It was relocated from old Highway 25-E at Patterson Road, Harrogate, TN to its present location on new Highway 25-E on the Randy Burchett car lot across from Lincoln Memorial University also in Harrogate, TN. The reverse side of the cross reads, “JESUS IS COMING SOON.” The cross was made and placed at its original site in the early 1940s by Clyde’s father, Henry Harrison Mayes.

Updates

• 2025-06-21 – new photo added by Knoxville-based photographer Casey Fox
• 2024-02-24 – Photo of the cross at the old location, courtesy of Martha Carver.

A metal sign, that shows some damage in historic Google Street View photos, but seemed to be restored at some point, because on 2013 Street View records the sign says “Get Right with God” on both sides.

Thanks to Thomas McGuire for sending the location and some information about the sign.

Tri-colored metal sign by Henry Harrison Mayes.

One of Harrison Mayes’ heart-shaped markers can be found in Maher, Mingo County, West Virginia. This is only verified by Google Streetview images from 2008 and a photo by photographer Roger May from 2010.

• 2024-05-26 Updated Google Street View images from 2022 show the top of the sign is gone.

One of the still standing markers in Mebane, North Carolina, that appears to be in good shape.

One of Henry Harrison Mayes’ first concrete signs was placed at the Fork Ridge Cemetery where his parents Ed and Alinda Mayes, his sister Cara and his brother Deward are buried.

• Lewis Elven “Ed” Mayes (1869-1941) – Find A Grave Memorial
• Malinda Icaphina Hopper Mayes (1879-1920) – Find A Grave Memorial
• Deward McKinley “Jeff” Mayes (1918-1953) – Find A Grave Memorial
• Cara M Mayes (1900-1918) – Find A Grave Memorial

This marker was supposed to be erected at the Suez Canal in 1990, but it didn’t make it out of Mayes hometown. So it’s still standing at the side of Highway 25E when heading out North of Middlesborro. Till 2015 the sign appears to have a white coat of paint with black letters, after 2015 the letters appear in red according to current Google Street view images.

It seems that this marker was planted in the late nineties.

Updates

• 2025-06-21 – new photo by Knoxville-based photographer Casey Fox

A cross by Henry Harrison Mayes, probably rescued from road construction and planted next to the Bennetts Fork Baptist Church.

This sign was placed on a sidewalk downtown near the busiest corner between 19th and 20th Street, and Cumberland Avenue.
The size of the bench was 6 ft. long with the beam of the cross measuring 4 ft. wide. The seat part was 12″ wide and 18″ high. This bench is small compared to the tall concrete crosses, but weighs more. The bench has 2 1 /2″ recessed letters on the side of the bench that reads: “GET RIGHT WITH GOD.”

Also, this sign has recessed letters in the end of the head piece of the cross. These letters are: “P.A.E.” Those letters stand for “P,” Planetary; “A” Aviation; “E,” stands for Evangelist. Daddy Mayes used these often.

In the center of the cross was a 2″ metal pipe that served as an umbrella stand. On top of the pipe was a recycled (again!) bright red coca cola beveled sign.

At the base of the cross there is a one-inch red stripe. It is fading now, but if the cross bench was placed on pavement like a sidewalk, the red stripe could have been easily seen. The bench would seat four adults comfortably.

The bench has been permanently placed near a picnic shelter at the Ford’s Woods Recreational Park, Middlesboro, Ky.

From “A Coal Miner’s Simple Message”

Update

• 2025-06-21 – Knoxville-based photographer Casey Fox contributed new photographs of the cross from different angles
• 2024-09-29 – thanks to Danny Martin for verifying the cross bench and taking a picture.

Mayes former home built in shape of a cross and initially with the message “Jesus Saves” painted on the roof.

It’s a private home, so please be respectful.

I tried to make this house mean everything. I’ve got eight rooms in this place.
That represents the eight people that was saved in the Ark. This house is shaped like a cross.
The front end’s got twelve windows and represents the twelve apostles. The back part has ten
windows for the Ten Commandments.
I built this place out of concrete because I don’t want it to never leave here. I don’t never
want it sold. I want it to finally wind up with the Salvation Army, using it as a place of their
business.

Henry Harrison Mayes, Foxfire 9, 1986, pp. 448-449

“The House of Many Crosses” exhibit was created and crafted to give honor to the homeplace and lives of the late Harrison and Lillie Mayes. They built their small 4-room house on Chester Avenue in Middlesboro, Kentucky in 1946. In later years the house began to expand .

The home was made of handmade blocks. Harrison used a portable block machine. Each block of the front section had a small cross 1/4″ indentation. A small cross was bolted inside the portable block machine to get the 6″ cross effect.

Throughout the home and around the yard, Biblical symbolisms dominated the old “homeplace.” The house model depicts these Biblical symbolisms.

Twelve windows in the front section represents the 12 disciples. Ten windows of the back section – represents the Ten Commandments. Eight outside doors of the whole house represents the 8 people who were saved in Noah’s Ark.

Two main front doors had unusual door knockers. Both doors had a 2-piece wooden heart that opened with a spring-loaded hinge. Written on the outside of the wooden heart were these words: “Notice – Open to God your heart and say” –when the heart opened the inside words were, “Jesus save me.” Then the doorknob could be reached to open the door.

A door on the back side of the right front section was never to be used. It never had a doorknob, landing or steps to the outside. This door represented that we give our heart to God and land safely with Jesus.

Without being secure in Jesus, we step out into eternity without hope.

Three porches were concrete and heart-shaped. On each porch was one of these three words: “Regeneration”, “Sanctification”, and “Holy Ghost Baptism.”

A wooden anchor created a walkway leading up to the two heart-shaped front porches. The words on the gate read: “Anchor your heart to the cross.” Later, the wooden anchor was replaced by concrete walkway.

The new gate displayed the ten commandments.

A concrete heart (200 lb.) was located at the left side of the front section. On the outside of the heart read: “Open after my death.” There was a message written on the inside of the other part of the double heart.

The message was placed there April 20,1954.

The metal roof had an aerial view message that read: “Get Right With God.” Later, Harrison painted larger letters that read: “Jesus Saves.”

A wooden sign hung above the double windows in the front section that read: “Air Castle.”

A wooden sign that hung below that sign read: “Middlesboro, Ky.”

Above the double windows the words, “Jesus Saves” were indented in the concrete header.

Three chimneys represented Jesus and the two thieves at the crucifixion.

Concrete fence posts represents the 7 continents. The 8 metal posts and 1 wooden post represents the 9 planets. The wooden post was referred to as the Judas post.

Seven strands of barbed wire represents the 7 times Jesus spoke from the Cross during the Crucifixion. The barbwire represented the Crown of Thorns.” Seven metal crosses along the right side of the fence row stands for the Biblical references that refer to the 7 times Jesus spoke from the Cross.

The two large concrete crosses that remains standing in the front yard of the old homeplace were poured standing and hand carved. The letters inscribed on these crosses read: “Thanks to God forever for landing me safely through the cross of Jesus Christ,” and the other cross reads: “Lost forever because I forsakened the cross of Jesus Christ.”

The row of hearts and crosses in the backyard were poured standing.

Each weighed 1400 lb. These hearts and crosses have been relocated to different places. Each concrete sign had this inscription: “To be erected in the 1990’s.” Twenty-eight hearts and crosses filled this backyard row of signs.

Mayes, Cathrine, “A Coal Miner’s Simple Message”, 1999, pp. 101-102

The lighted cross sits on a steep hillside on Sixth Street, on private property, directly aligned with Cumberland Avenue, the town’s main traffic artery. Though it rests only ten feet off the ground, the steep terrain creates an illusion that it’s floating in mid-air. Traveling west to east on Cumberland Avenue, the cross remains visible for about two miles, appearing to hover just down the street regardless of your position. The effect is consistently impressive.

This marker is placed a bit off the road, in the woods and might be harder to see in summer.

Photo by James Karales, “Get Right with God” sign on Highway 80 on the Selma to Montgomery March, 1964

Andreas Karales’ Memories of his Father, James – Gibbes Museum of Art

Ivan Massar, Selma to Montgomery, 1965

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches

Thanks to Brent Moore for helping me to locate this.

2025-04-03 – Thanks to Roger May (walkyourcamera) for sending pictures. It appears that the cross was relocated from the edge of the highway onto private property after it was seemingly patched (most of the inscription is plastered over) maybe after a car crashed into it?

This is a broken, but still standing cross near a highway rest area.

See also: https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/have-you-ever-seen-a-harrison-mayes-cross/

Update

• 2026-01-02 someone repaired the bottom of the cross. Thanks to Danny Martin for the update and sharing images.

A well-maintained marker by Harrison Mayes, next to a church

This is Harrison Mayes last sign, he set up near his old homeplace in Tazewell, TN. According to Google Street View, the sign was still present in 2014, but was gone in 2016.

Thanks to Martha Carver who provided a photo from 2000.

From the book, “A Coal Miner’s Simple Message” by Catherine Mayes:

This sign is located along a stretch of the old Highway 33 that has now been widened. The sign can be seen from the newly widened highway. It is situated off the main highway, so one must exit at the New Hope Exit. After the New Hope exit, bear to the right, and the sign will come into clear view. Daddy Mayes knew precisely “where” and “how” to install his special signs throughout the United States.

Now, let me share a secret about the large sign below Tazewell. It was erected around 1978. Clyde, Harrison’s youngest son, assisted Daddy Mayes in putting up this sign. As Daddy Mayes often said, “You’ve got the wheels,” implying that Clyde could handle the driving. Meanwhile, Harrison took care of everything else necessary to erect those signs.

And here’s the intriguing part: there was a very small personal sign attached to the larger one. This smaller sign went unnoticed from the highway. Daddy Mayes used a thin white aluminum cross, measuring 12 inches long and 9 inches across the arm of the cross, to inscribe his personal message. In this heartfelt message, he paid a “touching tribute and honor” to his grandparents. The small cross was securely nailed to a thick wooden square, also measuring 12 inches by 12 inches. These words were printed in green.

Our Grandparents

• Grandfather Johnson Mayes
  • Born: Apr. 21, 1817
  • Died: Apr. 22, 1900
• Grandmother
  • Born: Feb. 22, 1814
  • Died: Sept. 20, 1887

This sign is in honor of both of you. Over the years, the small sign began to weather and deteriorate. While Clyde and I were out scouting and taking pictures, we revisited the large aluminum sign. Clyde noticed the poor condition of the attached smaller sign and decided to remove it before it fell off. We now have the small sign in our collection and will take good care of it. For the sake of family history, it’s something to always treasure. It may be just a little piece of metal and wood, but imagine the sentiment as he nailed that tiny cross to the massive 40-foot-long sign. How wonderful that he thought of it—now, it can be passed down to the younger generations.

The big aluminum sign remains in excellent condition, according to Clyde, who has a keen eye for such things.

This large roadside sign (40 feet) is the last sign that Harrison erected. Despite failing health, he climbed around the hillside, giving precise directions and setting the poles just right to ensure its strength. He wanted to place this particular sign close to his old homeplace and near a state highway. With permission from his friend Max Cupp (now deceased), they planned and executed this sign—just right!

The letters on the barn got refurbished around 2019.

Thanks to Brent Moore for locating this.

This cross is featured in a few YouTube videos. In an attempt to repair the cross, the D of “GOD” was filled up and it read “GET RIGHT WITH GO”.

2023-12-03 Thanks to Thomas McGuire who sent me an update of this marker in 2023. The D was added back on, and it looks like people are still taking care of it.

2024-02-29 Thanks to Martha Carver for the clarification that this cross is the one on the book cover of “With Signs Following” by Joe York, which he loosely located at “near Etowah, TN”, which is 20 miles North of Ocoee, TN. She also provided a photograph from 1998 that matches the book cover and shows the building close by. She also provided a photograph from 1998 that matches the book cover and shows the building close by. I assume the cross was damaged when the highway was widened, and the landowner fixed and re-erected the cross in almost the same place.

I saw a mention of a Mayes cross in Ringgold, GA, near Chattanooga, TN in a facebook comment, but could not find it on Street View. Thanks to Martha Carver for the confirmation and sending me pictures of the cross’ old location, right on the highway in front of the fire station. Later it had been moved slightly to the edge of the driveway.

Thanks to Martha Carver and Jeff Durbin for the photos.

A rather unusual, more primitive concrete marker on Hwy 80 in Rockwood, TN near Kingston, TN.

The cross misses the typical lettering and message, instead it appears rough and with a different wording than Mayes on each side.

One side says JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, the other is barely readable but states …BUT THE BLOOD… which refers to “Nothing but the blood of Jesus”.

It’s a singular object inspired by the classic Mayes markers and got erected by Rockwood resident Donnie Bohanan[1]

More information on the blog.

Thanks to Brent Moore of SeeMidTN.com for sharing that with me.

[1] Stager, Claudette, and Martha Carver. “Chaper 13 – Get Right With God: Harrison Mayes’s Roadside Advertising Campaign For The Lord.” Looking beyond the Highway: Dixie Roads and Culture, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 2006, p. 207.

This sign by Harrison Mayes is different from the traditional concrete crosses as it was made from corrugated steel.

2023-11-02: another photo of the cross added. Thanks to Danny Martin (@dmartin3162) who remembered the cross being farther outside of Rutherfordton, NC.

2025-02-07: Thanks to Devon Tuttle (@Tuttle_Recall) for confirming the existence of the cross with two photos and the coordinates.

This cross in Smyrna, Tennessee was being modified for some time when the message said Made Right With God instead of Get Right With God.

The most insightful discussion about the meaning of the change might be in the comments on a flickr page to this photo.

“Get right with God” connotes a suggestion to do something. “Made right” might be referring to Harrison Mayes himself having “made right” with God, as he is deceased. Or maybe the property owner has “made right” with God. Who knows, just thoughts… — Buddha’s Ghost

According to “A Coal Miner’s Simple Message” Book, a cross was relocated from Middlesboro, KY to Speedwell, TN to Bill Hatfields property. I wasn’t able to find it via street view or satellite images, but I found a painted Mayes sign. Hatfield died in 2019.

2024-02-29 – Apparently I didn’t look close enough. The cross was just around the corner, along with another painted sign.

According to the book “A Coal Miner’s Simple Message”, a cross was relocated from Middlesboro to Speedwell, TN to Bill Hatfields property on January 31. 1998.

Update

• 2025-06-21 – additional photos by Knoxville-based photographer Casey Fox
• 2024-02-24 – Historian Martha Carver providing pictures from 2013 and the location of the cross.

On the same property, the relocated Speedwell, TN cross is standing, one of Mayes’ painted sign can be seen on a barn nearby and then another more worn out sign on a different barn.

Update

• 2025-06-21 – added photo by Knoxville-based photographer Casey Fox

This cross was posted by artist Patrick Owens on his website and Instagram, with only the town mentioned. Must be somewhere near Highway US-11.

2025-04-02 – Thanks to Roger May (walkyourcamera) for locating the cross and sending a current picture.

This sign is…

…on the west side of the road (southbound). This sign has been restored by community members about 5 years ago now & it was moved 0.5 miles (0.8 km) up the road to a better location.

Thanks to Thomas McGuire for sending the location and some information about the sign.

White cross with red letters in Tazewell, Tennessee.

This is a more unusual display of large letters spelling PREPARE TO MEET GOD and a cross laying flat on the ground.

Thanks to Martha Carver for pointing out the iconic red white and black sign “GET RIGHT WITH GOD” left of the Tazewell, TN Church of God.

One of Mayes’ earliest crosses and “the largest sign he ever made was located in his wife Lillie’s garden behind their small home in Fork Ridge, TN. In the early 1940’s, Harrison made a gigantic rock sign of 36 foot letters that read “V – IN GOD.” It was flat on the ground as it was intended to be seen from the air and contained 300 tons of whitewashed rocks brought to the site in a wheelbarrow.”

Updates

• 2025-06-21 – Photo added by Knoxville-based photographer Casey Fox
• 2024-02-24 – Photos by Martha Carver

Thanks to Lee Michael Caudill and Roger May for the discovery and contribution.

Photo of one of Mayes markers in Williamson, West Virginia a coal town, documented by Builder Levy in 1971. Marker might not exist anymore.

One of Mayes metal crosses was documented in 1989 by Jennifer Essen for Wilmington Star News. Decades later the newspaper still wonders where the cross might have gone. It’s described as a distinct and well-known landmark which existed until some highway construction took place.

Until the advent of I-40 — when much traffic in and out of Wilmington followed U.S. 117/Castle Hayne Road — the cross was a regular sight. In hand-painted lettering on one side, it urged passersby to “Get Right with God.” The other side read “Prepare to Meet God.”

Some people think it was in the vicinity where I-140 now crossed U.S. 117, near the General Electric plant. Others recall it as being closer to Wilmington. Local officials with the N.C. Department of Transportation have no record of it being removed.