> Ok, I understand that the verbiage is from the message-of-the-day, 
> but what does the system "restore" it from?
> 
> The motd that is unpacked from the etc.tgz for 1.5.1 just reads:
> 
> NetBSD ?.? (UNKNOWN)

Have a look at /etc/rc.d/motd.

sysctl -n kern.version | sed 1q

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://www.reedmedia.net/