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Watson Lake, Yukon Territory (Canada)

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

Watson Lake
Current Flag
- Design
- Symbolism
- Selection
- Designer

See also:

Watson Lake

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. - Source Wikipedia: Watson Lake, Yukon.

Watson Lake is the first community on the Alaska Highway (traveling north) after crossing the British Columbia-Yukon border, hence the slogan on the flag.
Rob Raeside, 14 April 2009

Current Flag

Text and image(s) from Canadian City Flags, Raven 18 (2011), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) by permission of Eugene Ipavec.

Design

The flag of the Town of Watson Lake has a white field with the town logo in the centre. The logo has a black gateway formed by a horizontal crossbar atop two vertical posts which are approximately one-third of the width of the horizontal bar. Inscribed on the bar is WATSON LAKE in white serif letters. Within the gateway is a stylized scene of three green hills, two on the left and one on the right, with a roadway in black, with intermittent white line markings, curving from the foreground to between the hills. Above them is a line of evergreen trees in black silhouette. Standing on a green area, approximately two-thirds of the distance from the left gateway post and rising behind the crossbar, is a black vertical line bearing six signs of varying shapes—rectangular, diamond, and circular—in green, black, and white, edged in black. At the base of each gateway post, facing outward to each side, emerge sprigs of vegetation in green. Curved below is YUKON’S GATEWAY in green serif letters. Between the base of the gateway and above the lower inscription the roadway dissolves into black specks.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Heather Berg from the Town Administration sent me a photo of the flag and on it the words "YUKON'S GATEWAY" are green.
Valentin Poposki, 4 January 2010

Symbolism

The gateway and the motto “Yukon’s Gateway” symbolize Watson Lake’s location in the southeastern corner of the Yukon, just 14 km from where the famed Alaska Highway crosses the British Columbia border. The road represents the highway itself, as the town stands at the junction of the Alaska, Robert Campbell, and Stewart-Cassiar Highways. The evergreen trees are for the surrounding forests. The signpost symbolizes the famous Sign Post Forest, which began in 1942 when a homesick U.S. Army soldier, Carl K. Lindly of Danville, Illinois, erected a sign pointing to his hometown with its mileage. Others continued this practice and on 20 July 1990 the 10,000th sign was erected. The sprigs of vegetation are fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), depicted in green rather than its natural colour (pink or purple). It is one of the first plants to bloom after a fire. The fireweed was adopted as the territorial flower in 1957 and it symbolizes Watson Lake as a Yukon community..
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Selection

Unknown.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Designer

Unknown.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011