Sign Post Forest is a collection of signs at Watson Lake, Yukon

Watson Lake, Yukon

Watson Lake is a town at historical mile 635 on the Alaska Highway in the southeastern Yukon close to the British Columbia border. Population in December 2004 was 1,547 ....

 and is one of the most famous of the landmarks along the Alaska Highway

Alaska Highway

The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II for the purpose of connecting the contiguous U.S. to Alaska through Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon...

. It was started by a homesick

Homesickness

Homesickness is the distress or impairment caused by an actual or anticipated separation from the specific home environment or attachment objects....

 GI in 1942. Visitors may add their own signs to the 75,000 already present.

Origin

In 1942, a simple signpost pointing out the distances to various points along the tote road being built was damaged by a bulldozer

Bulldozer

A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...

. Private Carl K. Lindley, serving with the 341st Engineers, was ordered to repair the sign, and decided to personalize the job by adding a sign pointing towards his home town, Danville, Illinois

Danville, Illinois

Danville is a city in Vermilion County, Illinois, United States. It is the principal city of the'Danville, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses all of Danville and Vermilion County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 32,467. It is the county seat of...

, and giving the distance to it. Several other people added directions to their home towns, and the idea has been snowballing ever since.

The forest today

The Sign Post Forest takes up a couple of acre

Acre

The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...

s, with huge new panels being constantly added, snaking through the trees. There are street signs

Traffic sign

Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...

, "Welcome To..." signs, signatures on dinner plates, and license plates

Vehicle registration plate

A vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database...

from around the world.