GROUP THAT RUNS HISTORIC RED LIGHT DISTRICT ATTRACTION CAN'T GET FREEWAY SIGN

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) -- A nonprofit group that runs a tourist attraction
out of what used to be an infamous red light district is upset that the
state won't allow a freeway sign pointing toward the old nest of brothels,
opium dens and card rooms.

Pendleton Underground Tours takes about 23,000 people a year through a
subterranean network of sinister tunnels, secret passageways, honkey-tonks,
speak-easies and other dens of ill repute under Pendleton's sidewalks,
dating to frontier days.

But traffic shoots by on nearby Interstate 84 without any clue that the
colorful district is nearby.

"We have been here 10 years and we still don't have signage, and it's a
bunch of red tape," said Pam Severe, executive director of the tours. "The
tourists come in and they are mad at us, like we do it intentionally.

"We are a mile from I-84, with traffic passing me daily. Thousands of
tourists, with no way of letting them know I'm down here," Severe said.

"It's so stupid. If I had highway signs, my business would go up 30
percent, guaranteed."

The state won't allow the freeway signs because the group doesn't have its
own independent listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Severe said the area where the tour takes place is listed on the national
register, even though the group doesn't have its own listing.

She can't buy private advertising space because of a freeze on the number
of billboards allowed along Oregon's freeways.