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Sign and family.
Nova Scotians Shelley, Brett, Brianne and Greg Penney are ready for helpful directions.

World Traveler Signpost

Field review by the editors.

Lynchville, Maine

For serious roadtrippers, the World Traveler Signpost is a required item one must eventually check off as "visited." Fortunately for us onesummer, it fell along an optimal route between a three-story outhouse in Bryant Pond, ME, and Clark's Trading Post in New Hampshire.

The sign (A.K.A. "Around the World" or "International" signpost), stands at an unpopulated and woodsy crossroads, and is widely known as a result of very popular postcards issued over the last 50 years. Though the foreign city sign gag is mimicked in other locales, this one wins by virtue of its geography. Those are real towns, with corresponding distances one would have to travel, say, to get to Denmark.... MAINE, or cross over into Mexico, MAINE.

There isn't much to the actual community of Lynchville, and this sign may be its chief industry.

While the old postcard shows a wooden stack of arrowed signs (sometimes attended by a boy with a sack attached to a stick), the current model is a single sheet of sign metal.

It still works for the inevitable photo op. As we were staging our own, a minivan pulled over and out spilled a family from Nova Scotia, lost and praying this sign might help them back across the border. It wouldn't, but we enlightened them re: the tourism significance of the sign. It's a major attraction! They cheerily assumed the position...

The land and property where the signpost stands has was purchased by an English couple, Ann and Mike Madden, in 2003. The plan was to "spruce the place up" by planting shrubs and flowers on the property, and maintain the sign so that it continues to delight travelers.

World Traveler Signpost

Address:
Valley Rd, Lynchville, ME
Directions:
On the northeast side of Hwy 35/Valley Rd at its intersection with Hwy 5/Crooked River Causeway.
RA Rates:
Worth a Detour
Save to My Sights

Nearby Offbeat Places

World's Largest TelephoneWorld's Largest Telephone, Bryant Pond, ME - 12 mi.
Jockey Cap Rock, Robert Peary MonumentJockey Cap Rock, Robert Peary Monument, Fryeburg, ME - 18 mi.
Mt. Washington Auto Road: Famous Bumper StickerMt. Washington Auto Road: Famous Bumper Sticker, Pinkham Notch, NH - 22 mi.
In the region:
Where Old Bet the Elephant was Killed, Alfred, ME - 54 mi.

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