76 Ball fan Mark Turner writes in with a strange discovery he made in his figurative backyard: "I was driving through a nearby town a few days ago and spotted a 76 ball in an unlikely location. It's up on a hill with no station nearby. I can only assume that somebody just liked it and decided to save it. From most angles when leaves are out, you probably can't even see it. I've been past it a hundred times and never spotted it, so I don't think the location was chosen to promote a station. Anyway, it's in Bluewell, West Virginia behind the Rite Aid pharmacy on Route 52. I'd been by there many times but hadn't noticed it.  You can't look around much while driving on the busy road but my wife was driving this time and it caught my eye.  It's near the intersection of routes 52 and 20, behind the Rite Aid.  If you try Google Maps, it will place the marker way off, when you search Rite Aid in Bluewell, so ignore their results.  Bluewell is small so it's easy to find in person."

More photos are here. Thanks, Mark! And if anyone knows why there's a 76 sign hidden up among the trees in West Virginia, please chime in in the comments section.

STATE OF THE UNION: The campaign to save the Union 76 ball by Adam Hay-Nicholls

Having been unbolted from its giant cocktail stick, a large orange ball sways high above Hollywood in the afternoon breeze. Slowly it is lowered by a crane, but four feet from the floor it comes crashing down, smashing into tiny plastic splinters. The tangerine shards spread beyond the feet of the assembled onlookers – locals whose view of their Californian town has just been changed. Their sky seems empty without a giant ‘76’ to guide them home. “Please stop destroying American history,” says onlooker Kyle Bates, arms crossed, surveying the wreckage on the gas station bay. “It’s like McDonald’s dumping the arches. Just wrong.”

The Union 76 ball has become iconic to Californians. An eye-catching 700-pound illuminated orange sphere with a dynamic blue ‘76’ font; when your needle is pointing at the red bar there are few more welcome signs. Their dismantling has prompted a boycott petition that has so far been signed by 1,500 gas guzzlers.

ConocoPhillips, the Houston-based energy corporation, inherited the brand when they took over Unocal’s refineries in 2002. Now the branded ball signs are making way for flattened red and blue discs, in order to create a common image among all of their petroleum brands: 76, Phillips 66 and Conoco. “We appreciate motorists’ loyalty to the orange and blue ball”, said a ConocoPhillips statement. “Though our look is a little different, our commitment to our customers remains the same.”

But Nathan Marsak, author of ‘Los Angeles Neon’, reflects the more popular view, countering: “Our urban fabric will lose a groovy, sexy element with the disappearance of this turning orb that still speaks ‘progress’ and ‘fun’ as opposed to its replacement which resembles some sort of giant tombstone.”

The campaign’s chief drum-beater is Kim Cooper, a committed blogger who’s a music writer by day and an LA Confidential-era crime tour guide by night. She, like many Los Angeles residents, felt an attachment to the 76 balls when she first saw them coming down. “Now a lot of people are choosing not to fill up in their stations,” she explains. Kim and friend Nathan Marsak are the writers of the www.savethe76ball.com petition. “We want them to stop pulling down the balls and replace those that have been removed,” says Kim. “We’ve been making ‘Please Don’t Take Our Balls’ T-Shirts to support the campaign.”

American’s love affair with the orange ball extends to their own cars. Go for a walk in a supermarket car park anywhere out west and you’ll see rows and rows of ping pong balls, sat on radio antennas, sprayed orange with an emblazoned ‘76’. The marketing promotion reached 17 million driveways.

While many of those small balls remain, the full size ones that have been dismantled lie in a graveyard dump near Fresno, like the yesco site in the Nevada Desert where neon signs from Las Vegas go to die. But campaigners Kim and Nathan won’t let the discarded signs put them off trying to save those that remain. “You’ve got to get on the battlements and fight the good fights,” says Nathan.

The ball’s creator is upset, after fifty years, to finally see his favorite design laid to rest. “I don’t understand why they’re changing to that dark red color”, says Ray Pederson, a sprightly 80 year-old, still in the ad game. “It isn’t attractive or eye-catching… it rather looks like liver.”

Thanks to Adam and to Intersection Magazine for the support!

On October 28, the intrepid J. Eric Freedner made a fascinating discovery...

"This may make Kim sad and Earl mad, but I found Swain Sign Installers on 5th Street in Ontario, CA late this afternoon. Here's what I saw: New 76 "hubcap" signs ready to go. Ironically, an old orange 76 sign (flat style) can be seen from the alley, across I-10 Freeway. Rows of new ConocoPhillips 76 price signs, all in crates. This is definitely the source of the new signs! Whether Swain makes them on site or just gets them in and only installs them, I do not know. Another view of the new 76 signs... And now the sad stuff... An old 76 ball, broken into pieces and stuffed into a big roll-off, awaits a final trip to the dump! This is the only one I saw at Swain's - none stored at the yard - so I guess they break them up as they come in and have them hauled away? At least I caught up with this before the sun went down. What can I say, other than sometimes preserving gas history is a bit painful?"

An urgent message from 76 Ball pal J. Eric Freedner should have all Angelenos fuming, as one of our most charming mid-city 76 Balls stands poised to be ripped from its pole and destroyed, perhaps this weekend! Nathan and I will be driving around town giving a Crime Bus tour all weekend... will some of you kind readers take it upon yourselves to guard and protect this sphere from harm?

"The 76 ball at Beverly Boulevard / St. Andrews Place in L.A. has yellow tape around it and signs of excavating around the base of the pole. I HAVE EVERY REASON TO BELIEVE THAT THIS SIGN WILL COME DOWN, PERHAPS THIS WEEKEND, TO BE REPLACED BY A NEW HUBCAP 76 SIGN.

St. Andrews Place is 2 blocks west of Western Avenue, on Beverly there is Schaeffer Ambulance and the 76 station is on the south side of the street one block further on."