Welcome to...where? Man who lives next to airport delights in confusing plane passengers with a 'Welcome to Cleveland' sign on his Milwaukee home

  • Mark Gubin painted the sign, written in six-foot tall letters, in 1978
  • His apartment is near Mitchell International Airport 
  • Got the idea after his assistant said he should post a sign welcoming people to Milwaukee and he decided to have a little fun 
  • Gubin has never received a complaint from the airport or any airlines  

By Anneta Konstantinides For Dailymail.com

Published: | Updated:

Since 1978, passengers flying to Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee have spotted the sign, written on a roof in six-foot tall letters. 

The only problem? It says 'Welcome to Cleveland'. 

Mark Gubin's sign has been confusing - and terrifying - passengers who were suddenly convinced they were going to the wrong place. 

'There's not a real purpose for having this here except madness,' Gubin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2005. 'Which I tend to be pretty good at.' 

Gubin first got the idea to paint the sign when he was having lunch on the roof of his apartment with his assistant at the time, and she noticed all the low-flying planes that came by. 

She told the photographer it would be a nice idea to make a sign that welcomed the passengers to Milwaukee. Gubin told her he had an even better idea. 

Since 1978 artist Mark Gubin's 'Welcome to Cleveland' sign, written on the roof of his building near Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport, has confused - and terrified - passengers flying overhead 

Since 1978 artist Mark Gubin's 'Welcome to Cleveland' sign, written on the roof of his building near Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport, has confused - and terrified - passengers flying overhead 

The sign became famous after it was first painted, making headlines in thousands of newspapers and magazines, TV news and even The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. 

Gubin said he was later told a special announcement was made on a regular flight from Denver to Cleveland that made a stopover in Milwaukee. 

Every flight, the attendants told passengers that the sign was wrong - they had not missed their stop. 

Gubin even received a letter from then-City Council President Ben E. Johnson, informing him that the sign was causing 'outrage and panic' for some passengers.

But, he wrote, the city would not be taking any action against Gubin - or the sign.

'I was in Cleveland not to long ago and I agree with Mr Gubin,' Johnson wrote. 'Anybody who wants Cleveland is welcome to it.' 

And Gubin has never received a complaint from the airport or any airlines who fly over the sign, which he continues to touch up with whatever paint he has available. 

'It was all tongue-in-cheek, just for fun,' he said of the sign.

'Living in the world is not a dress rehearsal. You better have fun with it.'  

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