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Mawlers’ Big Adventure ’04:
The Great White North

The Sign Post Forest

In Watson Lake, Yukon, there was a homesick soldier, working on the Alaska Highway during World War II, who put up a sign that pointed to his home, Danville Illinois. Think of the signpost in M*A*S*H (for those tv-philes out there). Well, 50+ years later, there are now over 50,000 signs there, pointing to just about everywhere in the world. This is a sampling of those signs. Updated: August 3, 2004

the magnitude of the forest is really not easy to capture with a camera...	so, i tried to take a variety of shots that show some interesting signs and some perspective of the scope.	i love the lack of context of the signs, so that you are not sure exactly where they are from. it fosters imagining fantastic stories about their origins.
another really cool part is that a good number of these signs have to be stolen...	sure, people could have gone to the local government and asked for a sign to post that had been retired or something...	but, let´s be honest... how many people are going to do that? (and what´s the fun in it?)
we took some shots of specific signs that we thought were cool. the Germans have contributed quite a number of signs.	this one rang a bell...	how about a closer look?
this one is from eastern europe somewhere... not sure where, exactly.	although it is from pennsylvania, it´s still I-81.	and this is our destination!
this is the only one we saw from Maryland, although I am sure there are others.	this one is for Brenda... is this the right waterloo?	you could get lost in these aisles.
row upon row upon row...	this is gertrude, a piece of equipment used making the highway, among other things.	... and gertrude´s interpretive sign.

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All materials © 2004 Lea Ann Mawler & Stuart Mawler