Host a Water Here marker

A small sign by the water with a code on it. Scan it and the page says what that water is doing today — whether it’s running, how the date compares with a century of records, and who is calling on the river. The sign never goes out of date, because the page behind it updates itself from public state records. Hosting one costs printing.

If you run a ditch

You answer the same three questions all summer: why is it dry, why is it full during a drought, can my kid swim in it. Every one is a phone call. A marker on the public footbridge answers all three before the phone rings — and gives your company something it has rarely had: a dignified public voice. One paragraph on the page is yours, in your name, in your words, and your safety language goes on the sign verbatim. Markers stand where people already lawfully are; the copy says look, never approach, and nothing invites anyone onto your easement.

If you run parks or open space

Your interpretive signage is good the day it goes in and stale by year five — nobody has staff to keep it current. This is interpretive signage that maintains itself, at the cost of printing, designed to your sign standard rather than ours. It can finally explain why the “creek” in the park is a ditch, why it switches off in October, and why that is normal and not neglect.

If you run a conservancy or watershed district

Outreach is mandated and nearly impossible to measure. Every marker counts its scans — counts only, no personal data, ever — and your partner page reports scans per marker per month. That is a real engagement number for a grant report.

If you pour beer, sell produce, or rent rafts

There’s a card version: “This is Clear Creek water — see what it’s doing today.” A stack by the register, no sign, no permission beyond the counter. We print them by the hundred.

The questions boards ask

Who is liable if someone gets hurt?: The marker stands where people already lawfully are — a public footbridge, a trail kiosk, a park fence — and its copy actively discourages approaching the water. Your safety language prints verbatim, and nothing invites anyone onto an easement. Siting is your call and needs your written OK on your own infrastructure.
What does it cost, now and later?: Printing. The artwork, the page, its upkeep and the scan counting are ours, indefinitely. A faded plate reprints from the same kit file.
What if we want out?: Take the sign down; tell us. The page stays up saying what stood there — a scanned code must never dead-end — but your name and paragraph come off at your word.
What do you collect about visitors?: A count of scans. No accounts, no ads, no location, no personal data — the page is a reading of public state records, and the count is what we hand back to you.
Who says the data is right?: Every number traces to Colorado DWR’s public record, and the site’s methods page says plainly what it can and cannot tell you. Where the record is thin, the page says so instead of guessing.

How it works

You pick the spot — public ground, or your own structure with your written OK. You approve every word before anything prints.
We supply print-ready artwork sized for a standard plate; your sign shop or ours prints it. The page behind the code is already live and stays maintained by us.
A printed code is a twenty-year commitment on our side: marker URLs never break, and a retired marker’s page says what stood there rather than going dark.
Nothing is tracked but a scan count. No accounts, no ads, no personal data — the page is a reading of public DWR records.

Interested, or want a marker somewhere you fish, walk or farm? hello@hydrohistorian.com — or see a live example page and the sign kit it prints from.