Talk:Sign Post Forest

Contested origin story
On Mar 17, 2021 a different story of the origin of this landmark appeared in the NZ Newspaper site "Stuff". Centenarian's birthday wish is for credit in starting Canadian 'sign forest' tourist attraction

The article is about former NZ Air Force airman, Jack Smith, celebrating his 100th birthday. The article includes a photo of what appears to be the original signpost, containing local Watson area placenames, plus a few international placenames including "New Zealand", "New York", "Pittsburgh", "Chicago", "Edmonton" and "Tokyo". But no "Danville, Illinois".

Excerpt frrom article:

A homesick South Taranaki farmer left his mark in a remote Canadian airfield during World War II, but someone else got the credit for the tourist attraction it developed into. Seventy-seven years later, Jack Smith, who just celebrated his 100th birthday, still wants the story about the origins of Watson Lake’s famous “sign forest” put straight. When he arrived at the tiny settlement in the Yukon, as a trainee pilot in 1944, there was one signpost with a few local place names and distances on it, so he carved one that said: ‘New Zealand 9000 miles’ and set it atop the post. Over the years, more and more people copied him and a forest of signs sprang up, becoming a tourist attraction. There were more than 78,000 signs when Jack and his late wife, Audrey, visited in 1997. Smith was just 22 when he was sent by the New Zealand Airforce to Canada for advanced training with the British Commonwealth Air Training programme. Due to a shortage of aircraft, he ended up working for the Royal Canadian Air Force construction and maintenance unit building roads and airfields.

--BigBadaboom0 (talk) 00:49, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

Untitled
1. The whole text is referenced 3. This is in support of the originators website. 4. I requested from the owner of content to add to and approve of this article. A usage of copyright material email was sent to mwl@explorenorth.com on August 7, 2009 2:18 PST via the website http://explorenorth.com/contact.html under the Photographs and/or Written Material Reproduction link
 * See WP:PERMISSIONS as to how you can have this content used here. PGWG (talk) 21:34, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Received permission from Author Aug 7, 2009 2:33 PM PST but, sending follow up email for the WP permission. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fskrc1 (talk • contribs) 22:01, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Content owner gave permission August 7, 2009 3:03 PM PST, applying

I have removed the Speedy tag and related hangon tag, pending OTRS confirmation of permission. If they do not confirm it, then I'll re-add the WP:CSD tag some time next week (provided a copyvio still exists) PGWG (talk) 01:08, 8 August 2009 (UTC)