Watson Lake, a quaint town nestled in Yukon, Canada, is a hidden gem that offers a unique blend of history, culture, and natural beauty. Located at mile 635 on the Alaska Highway, this town is a stone's throw away from the British Columbia border. Named after Frank Watson, an American-born trapper and prospector, Watson Lake has grown from a small settlement in the late 19th century to a bustling town with a population of 790 as of 2016.
Watson Lake is strategically located near the Liard River, at the junction of the Robert Campbell Highway and the Alaska Highway. The northern end of the Stewart–Cassiar Highway is just 22 km west of the town. Watson Lake is also served by the Watson Lake Airport, which was formerly served by Canadian Pacific Air Lines and other local and regional airlines. Today, it is served by Air North and various corporate and charter services.
The town is the main centre of the small forestry industry in Yukon and has been a service centre for the mining industry, particularly for the Cassiar, a now abandoned asbestos mine in northern British Columbia, and the Cantung Mine, a tungsten mine on the Yukon-Northwest Territories border in the Mackenzie Mountains.
Watson Lake is home to the Northern Lights Centre and the much-imitated original Sign Post Forest. The Sign Post Forest was started in 1942 by a homesick United States Army Corps of Engineers G.I. working on the Alaska Highway. He put up a sign with the name of his hometown and the distance, sparking a tradition that continues to this day. As of August 2010, there are more than 76,000 signs of various types depicting locations across the world. The Sign Post Forest is one of four roadside attractions featured on the first series of the Canadian Roadside Attractions Series issued by Canada Post on July 6, 2009.
Watson Lake and the neighbouring Upper Liard settlement are home to the Liard River First Nation, a member of the Kaska Dena Council. The Two Mile area immediately north of the town's core is a concentrated area of First Nations residents. The town extends 8.0 km out to the turn-off of Airport Road.
On January 2, 2016, the Town of Watson Lake annexed Two Mile and Two and One-Half Mile Village, marking a significant event in the town's history.
Watson Lake, like most of Yukon, has a subarctic climate with mild to warm summers and severely cold, snowy winters. The town experiences annual temperature average daily highs of 21.5 °C in July and average daily lows of −27.5 °C in January. The record high temperature was 35.4 °C in July 2009, and the lowest was −58.9 °C in January 1947. Watson Lake has more precipitation than other parts of Yukon, with an average annual snowfall of 196.1 cm and 262.0 mm of rainfall, resulting in larger trees and a more viable forest industry.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Watson Lake had a population of 1,133 living in 499 of its 564 total private dwellings, a change of 4.6% from its 2016 population of 1,083. With a land area of 109.77 km2, it had a population density of 10.3/km2 in 2021.
