Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

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Watson Lake was an important point during the construction of the Alaskan Highway in 1942. The airport, built in 1941, was one of the major refueling stops along the Northwest Staging Route, the system of airfields through Canada to ferry supplies to Alaska and later lend-lease aircraft to Russia. Of the nearly 8,000 aircraft ferried through Canada, 2618 were Bell P-39 Airacobras.

The economy of Watson Lake is based on services to mining exploration and on the forest products industry. White spruce and lodgepole pine are the two main trees of the Yukon and provide a forest industry for the entire territory.

The Signpost Forest is also located here. At the north end of town, the Signpost Forest is an area of town where Carl K. Lindley of Danville, Il., a U.S. soldier working on construction of the highway in 1942, placed a post with his name and home town on a sign. Others began to add to the posted sign and today it covers two full blocks winding around in a maze of circles with 4x4 posts standing 10 feet high covered with signs from those who have passed through this town. Most travelers who come this way, still add their signs to this area. Today there are over 65,000 signs here. We of course had to make our sign and post it as well. Visitors are encouraged to post their sign here. Signs date all the way back to 1942.

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Photos

Our Sign.............
Of course we had to put our sign there too !