I'd like to take a little departure from my usual column format and tell you about Lampasas County residents Bill and Chris Bowden, who recently returned from a lengthy trip to Alaska by way of the Alaskan Highway.

They traveled in their pickup truck pulling a fifth-wheel trailer.

This was the Bowden's second trip to Alaska by way of the Alaskan Highway. On their previous trip they stopped to view the world-famous Sign Post Forest in the community of Watson Lake, Yukon.

Bowden said they looked but did not find a sign for Kempner or Copperas Cove.

"We saw an old Lampasas City Limits sign, a U.S. Highway 183 sign and another small sign with Lampasas printed on it," Bowden said. "There were also signs from Llano, Belton, Temple, Killeen, San Saba and other Texas cities."

As they prepared for this trip, Bowden contacted Kempner Mayor Gene Isenhour and told him he wanted to post a Kempner sign. Isenhour had a sign made by the company that manufactures the city's street signs. The blue sign with white reflective lettering simply reads "Kempner, Texas."

Isenhour and Mayor Pro Tem Paul Cook shared the cost of the sign.

Above: Bill Bowden hangs a "Kempner Texas" sign at Sign Post Forest during a trip to Alaska with his wife, Chris. Right: An old "Lampasas" sign and plaque from the Perkins family reside in the forest. Bowden also contacted the city of Copperas Cove about a sign, but he did not receive any response.

When the Bowdens arrived at Watson Lake, they erected the Kempner sign in a prominent place. Bowden said he used a portable electric drill to permanently attach the sign to one of the posts.

The Sign Post Forest is Watson Lake's best-known attraction. It is so famous it has become mimicked around the world.

Watson Lake maintains the site, erecting more posts as they are needed through the Adopt-A-Post Program. The town lies at the 635- mile marker along the Alaskan Highway. It is 7.4 miles from the southern tip of the Yukon border.

A homesick Army G.I. named Carl K. Lindley of Danville, Ill., started the forest in 1942. He was a member of Company D, 341st Engineers, working on the Alaskan Highway. He erected a sign that pointed the way and stated the mileage to his hometown.

Others followed his lead and are still doing so to this day. In 1990, the 10,000th sign was placed.

In 1992, Lindley and his wife visited the site 50 years after his initial sign posting. Today, more than 70,000 signs stand in the forest. Bowden said there are many different signs such as city signs, road signs, personal signs bearing people's names and signs from other countries.

The Alaskan Highway is 1,522 miles long. It runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Delta Junction, Alaska. The building of the highway was the result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1942. It is one of the greatest engineering feats of the century.

With the threat of a Japanese invasion during World War II, the Alaskan Highway was built to provide a supply route from Alaska to the lower 48 states.

The highway starts at mile "O" -- located at Dawson Creek, B.C., and ends at Delta Junction.

Bowden said he was stationed in Alaska for three years while in the U.S. Army, and the couple have made several trips back there. The Bowdens enjoyed their recent trip and recommend that everyone should travel at least once in their lifetime over the Alaskan Highway. Over 90 percent of the highway is paved and in good condition. The other 10 percent is passable, they added.

Bowden said there are numerous places to camp, and visitors can fish in rivers and streams along the road if they are willing to pay $30 for a one-day license.

He and his wife drove at a leisurely pace and took two weeks to drive home from Alaska. They viewed many interesting sites along the way and took several side trips.

Other than posting the Kempner sign, their most memorable event was a mishap on the road.

They had stopped to photograph a grizzly bear. Bowden backed up for a better view and drove into a ditch, where they became stuck in the mud. After a long wait, a vehicle stopped to assist, and they contacted a tow truck in the next town. It took almost four hours for the tow truck to arrive and pull them out of the ditch. The fee for the 10-minute job was $500. They said they laugh now about the adventure.

Bowden is retired from Civil Service, and they moved to Lampasas County in 1981. Originally from North Carolina, Chris and Bill love their home state and Alaska, but Lampasas County is their home now. "We would not consider living anywhere else."

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@agristar. net.