Watson Lake, up in the Yukon Territory, is a little town of about 1500 people. It's located 635 miles, about half way, up the 1400 mile Alcan Highway, and close to the junctions of Rte 37 down to British Columbia, and Rte 4 up to Dawson. That makes it a natural rest stop for travelers, and because there ain't no place, like this place, near this place, for locals too.
But Watson Lake is most
famous for signs, lots of them, over 76,000 in 2010.
There was a US Army base and airstrip there during the big one, WW II, to support the construction of the road which took place between March 8th and October 28th. Private Carl K. Lindley was assigned to fix up the base signpost pointing the way to nearby destinations. He decided to add a sign pointing to his home town of Danville, Illinois. It caught on with others who added there own signs, under what must have been a laidback CO. But hey, WW II was raging and he was assigned to... Canada, which makes me think he was no Patton.
The base packed up and left, but the signs stayed, so some miners and loggers added more. When the highway opened to the public in 1948, first a trickle then a flow of tourists, adventure seekers, and not a few fugitives, kept adding signs. Watson Lake decided to not only tolerate the growth, but capitalize on it as a tourist attraction.
See the Sign Post Forest... psst, wanna buy some gas? How about a meal? We've got clean, soft, comfy beds? But always in a polite Canadian manner, eh.
