Fans of song stole Old Town Road sign, so B.C. town decided to sell them

When American rapper and singer Lil Nas X penned the lyrics: "Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road" in his record breaking song, he probably did not have the District of Sicamous, B.C., in mind.

However, due to the enormous popularity of the songOld Town Road, the southern Interior municipality's sign with the same name along Old Town Bayhas become a popular photo stop for tourists, and most recently, the target of theft.

To try to remedy the situation, the local chamber of commerce has made replicas of the sign and is now selling them.

"If you want one of these signs, rather than stealing it, we'll sell you one," said Mayor Terry Rysz."It's a wonderful way of dealing with a negative and turning it into a positive, and at the same time, it's promoting our community."

So far, the district has made 100 signs and is selling them for $25 each, but they may need to get even more made.

"We put it on Facebook. Next thing you know, it has kind of gone nuts," said Rysz. "They are selling like hotcakes already."

Requests for the signs have been pouring in from all over, with calls coming in from Williams Lake and 100 Mile House, said Joe McCulloch, operations manager for the district.

"The phones are ringing off the hook."

Tourist attraction

The song Old Town Road currently holds the record as the first-ever song to enjoy the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for 17 weeks straight.

Ever since it hit the airwaves, locals in thepopular tourist town on Shuswap Lakehave noticed an increasing number of people posing for pictures with the road sign.

"Now, we're just working with it," said McCulloch.

The real road sign which was stolen a few days ago, will hopefully be replaced by the end of the week, he added.

However, the mayor thinks this has been a great opportunity for Sicamous.

"We're a tourist driven community and so this is another form of marketing for our town," said Rysz. "It's something that I think has been a wonderful idea."