In 1943, Carl Lindley, was assigned to put a sign post at Watson lake, Yukon for the newly constructed Alaska Highway. He decided to add an additional sign from his hometown of Danville, Illinois. Since then, over 72,000 travelers have followed his lead and left a sign that they too, have a home far away or a story to tell. The resulting collection is now referred to as the Sign Post Forest.
The city adds 10’ high posts to the forest every year for new additions and it is fascinating to walk through and feel all of the people from all over the world who have traveled this way before.
Some, anticipating the stop, have fancy professional signs made in advance or swipe a sign from their community to proudly display. I’m sure there are town administrators all over the world who are not happy with Mr. Lindley’s legacy as they watch signs disappear from their city streets. Others, like us, who don’t plan well have to improvise at the last minute. Because, once you see the display, you can’t move on until you leave your mark.
Really poor planners that are in a hurry desperately pull out a frying pan, a spatula, a shoe, a shirt or even a guitar to scribble on to make sure that they leave something.
We weren’t quite so desperate that we had to offer up our only cookie sheet but, our resources were limited. The ladies at the visitor center were kind enough to donate a hunk of wood then we got to work.
I came up with a simple design, the Hippygeek drilled some holes, the Lil’ Dude sanded and the Big Dude colored it all in with markers. We added a card with our picture and mission statement encased in plastic and viola’, we had a sign!
Now, mind you, it’s not an award winner but, at least we didn’t move on without leaving our mark.
“The trouble with our age is all signposts and no destination”. Louis Kronenberger
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