Visit the Signpost Forest in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, northern Canada. Updated June 2022
The Signpost Forest
During the building of the Alaska highway in 1942, a homesick American soldier put up a sign with the name and distance to his home town. It read “Danville, Illinois, 2835 Miles”. That soldier’s name was Carl Lindley, and the place was Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada.
Other soldiers started putting up signs for their home town. The practice continues today with travellers on their way to Alaska. The area has become known as the “Sign Post Forest”. Today there are signs from all over the world. I wished I had a sign from Waterloo, Ontario, where I grew up. However, I found to my surprise, that there were already a couple of them here. Not many places in North America do not have a sign here. Also, there are as many from Europe. Many towns are missing their signs. People have brought large signs from around the world to put here as well as highway markers, licence plates and many other interesting items.
The photos I posted here represent just a tiny fraction of the 72,000 signs in the Sign Post Forest. If you plan a trip to Alaska or the Canadian north, perhaps you can bring a sign from your town and add it to the Sign Post Forest. Not just city names but any road sign will do. But don’t steal one. If you ask your town or public works and tell them why you want it, they will most likely have an old sign they can give you. After all, it is a tourist promotion for their town. Even if you don’t bring a sign, almost all travellers to Alaska and northern Canada stop to see the Sign Post Forest. It is pretty interesting.