If you live in North Carolina and were hoping to attach a Blue Ridge Parkway commemorative 75th anniversary license plate onto your rig, you can forget about it. The foundation has decided too many obstacles stand in the way of producing the special plates.

Part of the problem was that there currently is an inventory of 3,600 already-produced tags that honor the parkway at the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. This inventory would need to be purchased at an expenditure of about $12,000 before the new 75th anniversary tags could be produced. The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation had asked if this inventory could be set aside and resumed after the 75th anniversary tag expired in December 2010, but was told that was impossible.

The other dilemma was legislation introduced to the North Carolina Legislature that could jeopardize the entire license plate program run by the foundation to raise money for parkway needs. "The worst thing that could happen would be that in the mix of getting the design approved for the 75 th anniversary and then reverting back to the old design in early 2011, the foundation could 'end up between the proverbial rock and a hard place' and lose its tag program altogether," the organization notes.

As a result, the decision to pursue a new commemorative plate for the 75th anniversary has been sacked.

However, the foundation is selling, for $75 each, a limited edition signed and numbered serigraph to raise money. The Works Progress Administration-style depiction, says the foundation, "captures the essence of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Only 600 of these serigraphs will be produced and each one is personally signed and numbered by the artist, Doug Leen. Each caries the gold foil seal of the 75th anniversary! A portion of the proceeds from this sale are returned to Blue Ridge Parkway 75, Inc."

You can place an order for one of these posters at this site.