Hello again! After a very busy time at home and traveling south to Florida I finally have some time for a post. On our road trip to Alaska, we stopped in Watson Lake Yukon Territory in Canada at the world famous Sign Post Forest to post a hometown sign. This is a must see stop on the famous Alaska-Canadian Highway.
The Alaska-Canadian Highway, Alcan for short, was built in 1942 by the US Army to provide a land route to Alaska at the start of World War II. It runs 1390 miles from Dawson Creek, Alberta, Canada to Delta Junction, AK, USA. It took only eight and a half months to build the road through some of the most desolate and rugged mountains in North America. Over 27,000 soldiers and civilians used over 7,000 pieces of equipment to build the highway.
Carl Lindley of Danville, IL, a soldier in the US Army, started the Sign Post Forest. Feeling a bit homesick while working on the highway, Lindley decided to add a sign for his hometown, with mileage, to a mileage signpost he was repairing. His idea caught on and other soldiers starting adding signs for their hometowns. When the road opened to the public in 1948, travelers and tourists started adding their hometown signs.
Today there are over 80,000 signs posted in the forest. The town of Watson Lake maintains the forest. All the signs are counted at the end of every summer. More posts are added as needed and volunteers man the information center.
There is every type of sign imaginable posted in the forest. We choose to have a license plate made with our hometown of Exeter on it in the old Exeter school colors of maroon and gold. We also spotted about a half dozen other signs from Pennsylvania, one as close and recognizable as Towanda.
You can read more about the highway at
https://www.themilepost.com/highways/alaska-highway/
https://www.bellsalaska.com/highway/alaska-highway/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway
Thanks for being here!