| There are many stories of how different
places got their names along the highway. We kind of liked this one
about toad so we've adopted it. Back around 1942 when the Canadian
and us armies were busy building the Alaska highway (it was not the
super highway you just drove in on) there were problems crossing the
river, what with no bridge yet built, so it was par for the course
to be "towed across". The proprietors of this establishment
at that time adopted "Towed River" as the name of their
lodge. Did someone really think they meant "Toad" or were
their language skills lacking? Your guess is as good as ours at this
point. So that's our story and we're sticking to it, for now anyway.
The hat collection began in 1979. One evening after a stressful day at the lodge the proprietors, could be the same two mentioned above, were having a brew or two. One left to see a man about a horse and the other tacked his hat to the ceiling. There you have it, doesn't take much to get something started around here. At the time of this writing there are over 5000 hats from all over the world. Do not leave your hat unattended! Who are these people? You ask. Well the population hovers around 75 souls. Employment is limited. Most locals either work maintaining the highway or like us, maintaining the people that travel it. There are also several outfitting businesses in the area that have clients come from all over the world to enjoy the wilderness and hunt. Our school has an average enrollment of 25 students from kindergarten to grade 12 with two full time teachers on staff. Since we don't have a school bus our students get to school in a variety of ways: horseback, snowmobile, ATV, Airplane, on foot and of course by automobile. The longest trek to school is around fifty miles. On cold days when things refuse to start we get to stay home. There is an abundance of wildlife to see along your way, just try
not to run over any. You can frequently see: elk, moose, caribou,
stone sheep, black bears and sometimes grizzly bears on the roadside.
Please don't approach them or feed them since this will usually
result in them or you being hurt. Do take lots of pictures, have
fun and come back and see us soon. |