This paper examines the history and identity inscribed in the linguistic landscape of Leukerbad, Switzerland, located south of Bern in Valais, Canton. As if frozen in time, this remote village is set high in the Alps and was once a significant historical transcultural crossroad--the southern entrance to the Gemmi Pass across the Swiss Alps. Photographed onsite in 2018, in the present LL (all the literacies marking and defining this space), one can read the history, language practices, values and an essential existence of a mountain community that has survived in balance with post-human forces for thousands of years. For centuries Leukerbad has been a well-known tourist site due to its natural hot springs and thermal baths. With a current population of approximately 1500, spa tourism is clearly essential to its economy. The bus station in the Town Center greets visitors with a large sign that says "Welcome" in German, French, Italian, and English. Ancient chalet-styled buildings with lengthy inscriptions burned into the wood on the outside are still visible, reflecting long-term sociolinguistic practices recorded earlier in a study by Lardin in 1913. In addition, creative wood carvings decorate the exterior of homes and businesses while traces of ancient Roman era are presented in ceramic mosaics. 

The researcher utilized a layered semiotic LL approach to analyze the complexities of authorship and readership, as well as human interactions and choices of materiality and the emplacement of signs in this community.  In this paper, I highlight researcher subjectivity and argue that the natural fusion of physical geography with local material objects, symbols, historical icons, images, and linguistic inscriptions evidence a co-existence of temporalities--a timeless mountain community identity that reflects modes of living and thinking that are current, yet, have persisted for thousands of years.