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Monumental Misspelling Clouds Macy's Historical Recognition

MARYSVILLE (CBS13) - It's a monument meant to honor the Macy's General Store that opened in Marysville back in 1850, but a closer look at the plaque shows a monumental misspelling.

If you're just walking by, at first glance, it looks like a beautiful monument cut out of a rock pulled from the Yuba River; but if you take a closer look, you realize something is missing.

"Historical. 'S-T-O'...yeah that's spelled wrong. It's missing an 'I'" said one woman.

But the missing "i" was missed by many eyes this weekend during the dedication ceremony.

"We could go down in his-tor-cal, right?" said one man.

Even Friday, the mistake went unnoticed.

L&L Monuments in Yuba City did the engraving.

"We asked them several times, 'Is this spelled the way you want it?' said Peggy Vander Ploeg.

Native Sons of the Golden West paid for the project.

Ploeg showed CBS13 the form where the historical society signed off on the spelling.

"Some people spell things wrong on purpose, nicknames, things like that," said Ploeg.

Even before it was engraved, around a hundred people took a look and never noticed anything wrong.

Now, people are finding more imperfections. And yes, the big mistake is clouding recognition of a Macy's milestone and the brothers behind a multi-billion-dollar brand with roots in Marysville.

Native Sons says the mistake will cost thousands of dollars to fix and is something it just doesn't have the money for. So for now, the rock and spelling mistake will have to stay.

The historical group that submitted the text says they're not the only ones to blame. Their Microsoft Word spell check, they claim, missed the mistake too.

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