Carl Lindley (1919 - 2002)

Carl Lindley was an American soldier with the 341st Engineers, working on the Alaska Highway construction project. He was refurbishing the road signs and made a sign of his own marking his hometown and the mileage. He tacked the sign in a prominent place on the highway near Watson Lake. Others were encouraged to follow suit and Watson Lake's signpost forest was the result.1) Lindley's homemade sign read “Danville, Illinois, 2,835 miles.” Lindley and his wife, Elinor, returned to Watson Lake in 1992 for the 50th anniversary celebrations.2)

1)
Ted Stone, Alaska & Yukon History along the Highway. Red Deer: Red Deer College Press, 1997:148.
2)
“Sign post forest founder dies.” Whitehorse Star (Whitehorse), 22 February 2002.