Ragged Ass Road (Yellowknife): Difference between revisions

Ragged Ass Road
	View north from Brock Drive, 2015
Former name(s)	Privy Road
Namesake	Poverty experienced by local prospectors
Type	Dirt road
Maintained by	City of Yellowknife
Length	150 m (490 ft)
Addresses	3902–3920
Location	Yellowknife, NT, Canada
Postal code	X1A 2T4
Coordinates	62°27′38″N 114°21′09″W / 62.46063°N 114.35256°W
South end	Brock Drive
North end	Hamilton Drive
Other
Known for	Unique name

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Ragged Ass Road is a short unpaved residential street in the Old Town section of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Its name started as a joke in 1970 by resident Lou Rocher, who owned much of the property along it at the time, and his friends. At the time the street had been known as "Privy Road" due to the large number of outhouses along it. When a difficult prospecting season yielded little income, convincing residents that they were "ragged ass broke", they decided that that should be the name of the street.

While widely used, the name was somewhat controversial. It was not officially recognized by the city with signposts until the mid-2010s, after Rocher's death.^[2] It has been described as one of the most famous streets in Canada. Singer Tom Cochrane named his 1995 album after it, including a song about the street.

Street

Ragged Ass Road is in a residential area midway between the intersection of Franklin (50th) Avenue, Yellowknife's main street, and School Draw Avenue, its lake shore road, and Yellowknife Bay on the north arm of Great Slave Lake.^[3] The terrain is flat, at approximately 160 metres (520 ft) in elevation, reflecting the proximity of the lake.^[4] The neighborhood is at the south end of the city's Old Town,^[5]^[6] on a peninsula projecting into the lake's Yellowknife Bay.^[4]

The southern terminus is at Brock Drive, three blocks east of School Draw. From there it follows a north-northeast heading, bending more to the northeast midway along its 150-metre (490 ft) length, then back to its original heading as it reaches its north terminus at Hamilton Drive. Along with its neighboring streets it is unpaved for its entire length.^[3]

With the exception of one large bedrock outcrop in the middle of the west side of the street, all the lots along the street are developed with wood frame residences of modern construction and associated outbuildings. Some small deciduous trees grow among them.^[7] (In her novel Bones Are Forever, American writer Kathy Reichs described the prevailing architectural style of Ragged Ass as "northern hodgepodge".^[8]) Addresses are in the range of 3901–3921, following Yellowknife's grid-based numbering system. Its postal code is X1A 2T4.^[1]

History

The construction date of Ragged Ass Road is unknown. Yellowknife was significantly settled only after a 1935 gold rush. After a few years, development was interrupted by World War II, only to resume afterwards. At that time most development was on the peninsula, in the area known today as Old Town. The road may have started as a narrow alley where residents cut wood to building the barges that carried freight to and from the growing settlement across Great Slave Lake.^[9] By 1957, when Saskatchewan native Lou Rocher settled in the area,^[2] it existed and was known unofficially as Privy Road due to the many outhouses along it.^[5]

Rocher made his living through several vocations, selling firewood, commercial fishing, but primarily prospecting. He eventually came to live on Privy Road, where he owned several lots on the street. On them he built homes and cabins, often letting people in need live there.^[2]

One night near the end of 1970, in which he and fellow prospectors had worked hard but found far less, he was drinking with some of them in the family Quonset hut. Reflecting on their circumstances, Rocher joked that the street should be named "Ragged Ass Road" since they were all "ragged ass broke". "[My father] felt he should be able to name it because he owned six of the nine lots on the road and he thought he could name it appropriately", his son recalled later. The men put up a sign that night.^[2]^[10] The term's use as a place name might not have been original. There was reportedly a Ragged Ass Mine on the lake in earlier years.^[11]

The name caught on, if not formally. Officially the city still considered the street to have no name, but Rocher made his own signs, replacing them after visiting tourists stole them. Eventually they were welded to their posts, and gift shops in the city started selling replicas.^[5] During the 1980s, Rocher clashed with Yellowknife's municipal government over a survey of the area. At one point he even blocked the street off to keep city employees away.^[2]

In 1995 former Red Rider lead singer Tom Cochrane named his third album Ragged Ass Road after the street. The title track of the album described a place "Where the shore fires burn out on a new frontier" and had the chorus "Oh did you find the midnight sun"^[A] Down on Ragged Ass Road".^[12] It added to the road's allure as a tourist attraction, but the city still demurred from making the name official.^[2]

The city was not unique in its reluctance to embrace the name despite its popularity. In 2004, a small town in the U.S. state of Ohio mailed a Ragged Ass Road sign back to Yellowknife's city government after having confiscated it from a homeowner as inappropriate for public display. Eight years later a British Columbia man flying out of Vancouver on WestJet with a Ragged Ass Road T-shirt was told by a flight attendant to either cover it up or turn it inside out for the duration of the flight since the airline was "family-friendly". He chose the former option, but when the incident made national news, WestJet apologized. When it did so, it posted to its Instagram account a photo of a Ragged Ass Road sign that had been on the office wall of its chief executive officer, Gregg Saretsky, for two years. Yellowknife city officials made it a point to meet with WestJet officials to come to a common understanding: the T-shirts are a tourist draw.^[2]^[9]^[13]

The year before, crime novelist and forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, a producer of the American television series Bones, had attended the NorthWords literary festival in Yellowknife. She liked the city so much she set part of her next novel, Bones Are Forever, there.^[14]^[15] In one scene her main character, Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist like her creator, trails a suspect from downtown Yellowknife to Ragged Ass Road on a cold morning, giving her a chance to describe it:

A sign on a rock said Ragged Ass Road. That's one you'd never see on the Queen City^[B] map ... The neighborhood was residential, with browned-out grass hugging up to the road and utility wires hanging low overhead. I smelled fishy water and bracken mud and sensed a lake nearby ...The newer homes looked like they'd been assembled from mail-order kits. Aluminum siding. Prefab windows. Faux-colonial shutters and doors ... The older ones resembled cottages at a hippie summer camp. Unstained frame exteriors painted with murals or images taken from nature. Metal downspouts and smokestacks. Whirligigs, plastic animals, and ceramic gnomes in the yards or topping the fences ... Every house had at least one outbuilding, a rusted tank, and a mound of firewood.^[16]

According to Murtaza Haider, professor and director of Toronto Metropolitan University's Institute of Housing and Mobility, it is claimed that this street is an example of a "poorly named street ... [that] create[s] negative shift in market value."^[C]

"Ragged Ass" street sign replicas are sold in the area. Nevertheless, the signs have been stolen so frequently that the city has had them welded to their posts.^[18]^[19]

Lou Rocher died in May 2013 and was remembered around Yellowknife most prominently for giving Ragged Ass Road its name. Despite that, his family noted, at that time the city still had not installed official street signs with the name.^[2] As of 2015, there are city signs at both ends of the road.

Notes

^ While the midnight sun is often associated with Yellowknife, it is south of the Arctic Circle and only experiences white nights, where the sun dips just below the horizon for a few hours of twilight in the summertime, rather than the full midnight sun.
^ A reference to the American city of Charlotte, North Carolina, where Brennan, like Reichs, lives for part of the year. A few paragraphs before this, Brennan had noted how 50th Avenue's apparent sudden change of name to Franklin Avenue north of downtown Yellowknife was a phenomenon she was used to from Charlotte's streets.
^ "Residents of Canada's Dingle Bingle Hill Terrace, Cheapside Street, Ragged Ass Road and Bastard Ward consider yourselves warned: There is a small but noteworthy negative effect between a badly named street and the perceived market value of homes or businesses that reside on it ..." Conversely, a well-regarded street name, e.g. Bloor Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, can have a measurable positive effect on perceived value and price.^[17]

References

^ ^a ^b "3902 – 3920 Ragged Ass RD, Yellowknife – Postal Code". canadapostalcodes.net. 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Whitehouse, Simon (May 3, 2013). "Ragged Ass Road pioneer remembered". Northern News Services. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
^ ^a ^b ACME Mapper (Map). Cartography by Google Maps. ACME Laboratories. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ ^a ^b Atlas of Canada Toporama (Map). 1:6,000. Cartography by Natural Resources Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Ragged Ass Road". Yellowknife, NWT: Gallery of the Midnight Sun. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ Wilkinson, Tandi (September 28, 2012). "Ragged Ass Road, Dog Island Film Festival, and Other Interesting Things About Life in Yellowknife". The Song I Live By. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
^ Per the Google Street View option at the ACME Mapper link given above.
^ Reichs 2013, pp. 168–170.
^ ^a ^b Hudson, Katherine (October 17, 2012). "Ragged Ass Road gets a rough ride". Northern News Services. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ Heal, Tyler (2007). The Times Behind the Signs: The History Behind Yellowknife's Street Names. Yellowknife: Crescent Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9739420-0-2.
^ Malcolm, David (October 18, 2011). "Letter from Canada: Yellowknife, gateway to the Arctic". The Guardian. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ "Tom Cochrane – Ragged Ass Road lyrics". Lyrics Mine. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ "WestJet apologizes after Ragged Ass Road shirt flap". CBC. October 16, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
^ Reichs 2013, pp. 369.
^ Reichs, Kathy. "Meet the Brains Behind 'Bones'". Talk of the Nation Science Friday (Interview). Interviewed by Ira Flatow. National Public Radio. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
^ Reichs 2013.
^ "Poorly named streets create negative shift in market value, real estate expert finds". CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
^ Zahir, Fazile (February 4, 2008). "Kebabble: Turkey's costly signs of the times". Asia Times Online. Fethiye, Turkey. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
^ "N.W.T. licence plate theft riles Vancouver cafe owners - North - CBC News". Cbc.ca. 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2016-09-18.

External links

Media related to Ragged Ass Road at Wikimedia Commons

[12] While the midnight sun is often associated with Yellowknife, it is south of the Arctic Circle and only experiences white nights, where the sun dips just below the horizon for a few hours of twilight in the summertime, rather than the full midnight sun.

[17] A reference to the American city of Charlotte, North Carolina, where Brennan, like Reichs, lives for part of the year. A few paragraphs before this, Brennan had noted how 50th Avenue's apparent sudden change of name to Franklin Avenue north of downtown Yellowknife was a phenomenon she was used to from Charlotte's streets.

[20] "Residents of Canada's Dingle Bingle Hill Terrace, Cheapside Street, Ragged Ass Road and Bastard Ward consider yourselves warned: There is a small but noteworthy negative effect between a badly named street and the perceived market value of homes or businesses that reside on it ..." Conversely, a well-regarded street name, e.g. Bloor Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, can have a measurable positive effect on perceived value and price.^[17]

[Canada_postal_codes_site-1] "3902 – 3920 Ragged Ass RD, Yellowknife – Postal Code". canadapostalcodes.net. 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

[Rocher-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Whitehouse, Simon (May 3, 2013). "Ragged Ass Road pioneer remembered". Northern News Services. Retrieved March 8, 2015.

[ACME_Mapper-3] ACME Mapper (Map). Cartography by Google Maps. ACME Laboratories. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

[topo_map-4] Atlas of Canada Toporama (Map). 1:6,000. Cartography by Natural Resources Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

[Gallery_of_the_Midnight_Sun-5] "Ragged Ass Road". Yellowknife, NWT: Gallery of the Midnight Sun. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

[Wilkinson-6] Wilkinson, Tandi (September 28, 2012). "Ragged Ass Road, Dog Island Film Festival, and Other Interesting Things About Life in Yellowknife". The Song I Live By. Retrieved November 7, 2015.

[ACME_Mapper_Street_View-7] Per the Google Street View option at the ACME Mapper link given above.

[FOOTNOTEReichs2013[httpsbooksgooglecombooksidyTNoAAAAQBAJpgPA168_168–170]-8] Reichs 2013, pp. 168–170.

[NNSL_T-shirt_story-9] Hudson, Katherine (October 17, 2012). "Ragged Ass Road gets a rough ride". Northern News Services. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

[10] Heal, Tyler (2007). The Times Behind the Signs: The History Behind Yellowknife's Street Names. Yellowknife: Crescent Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9739420-0-2.

[Guardian_piece-11] Malcolm, David (October 18, 2011). "Letter from Canada: Yellowknife, gateway to the Arctic". The Guardian. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

[Ragged_Ass_Road_song_lyrics-13] "Tom Cochrane – Ragged Ass Road lyrics". Lyrics Mine. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

[WestJet_CBC_story-14] "WestJet apologizes after Ragged Ass Road shirt flap". CBC. October 16, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2015.

[FOOTNOTEReichs2013[httpsbooksgooglecombooksidyTNoAAAAQBAJpgPA369_369]-15] Reichs 2013, pp. 369.

[Reichs_NPR_interview-16] Reichs, Kathy. "Meet the Brains Behind 'Bones'". Talk of the Nation Science Friday (Interview). Interviewed by Ira Flatow. National Public Radio. Retrieved September 20, 2015.

[FOOTNOTEReichs2013-18] Reichs 2013.

[19] "Poorly named streets create negative shift in market value, real estate expert finds". CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. Retrieved November 5, 2015.

[Zahir-21] Zahir, Fazile (February 4, 2008). "Kebabble: Turkey's costly signs of the times". Asia Times Online. Fethiye, Turkey. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2015.

[22] "N.W.T. licence plate theft riles Vancouver cafe owners - North - CBC News". Cbc.ca. 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2016-09-18.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{short description|Unpaved street in Yellowknife, capital of Canada's Northwest Territories}}
 {{Infobox street
 | name                    = Ragged Ass Road
@@ Line 21: / Line 22: @@
 | length_notes            =
 | width                   =
-| postal_code             = [[List of X postal codes of Canada|X1A]] 2T4<ref name="Canada postal codes site">{{cite web|title=3902 – 3920 Ragged Ass RD, Yellowknife – Postal Code|url=https://www.canadapostalcodes.net/nt-northwest-territories/yellowknife/ragged-ass-rd/3902-3920/|publisher=canadapostalcodes.net|date=2015|accessdate=September 19, 2015}}</ref>
+| postal_code             = [[List of X postal codes of Canada|X1A]] 2T4<ref name="Canada postal codes site">{{cite web|title=3902 – 3920 Ragged Ass RD, Yellowknife – Postal Code|url=https://www.canadapostalcodes.net/nt-northwest-territories/yellowknife/ragged-ass-rd/3902-3920/|publisher=canadapostalcodes.net|date=2015|access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref>
 | addresses               = 3902–3920
 | location                = [[Yellowknife]], [[Northwest Territories|NT]], [[Canada]]
@@ Line 47: / Line 48: @@
 | website                 = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
 }}
-'''Ragged Ass Road''' is a short [[dirt road|unpaved]] residential street in the Old Town section of [[Yellowknife]], [[Northwest Territories]], [[Canada]]. Its name started as a joke in 1970 among resident Lou Rocher, who owned much of the property along it at the time, and his friends. At the time the street had been known as ''Privy Road'' due to the large number of [[outhouse]]s along it. But a difficult [[prospecting]] season had yielded them little income, convincing them they were "ragged ass broke" and that should be the name of the street. While widely used, it was somewhat controversial; an airplane passenger was once forced to cover up a T-shirt with a Ragged Ass Road street sign on it. The name was not officially recognized by the city with signposts until the mid-2010s, after Rocher's death.<ref name=Rocher>{{cite news|last1=Whitehouse|first1=Simon|title=Ragged Ass Road pioneer remembered|url=http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2013-05/may3_13lr.html|accessdate=March 8, 2015|publisher=Northern News Services|date=May 3, 2013}}</ref>
+'''Ragged Ass Road''' is a short [[dirt road|unpaved]] residential street in the Old Town section of [[Yellowknife]], [[Northwest Territories]], [[Canada]]. Its name started as a joke in 1970 by resident Lou Rocher, who owned much of the property along it at the time, and his friends. At the time the street had been known as "Privy Road" due to the large number of [[outhouse]]s along it. When a difficult [[prospecting]] season yielded little income, convincing residents that they were "ragged ass broke", they decided that that should be the name of the street.
+While widely used, the name was somewhat controversial. It was not officially recognized by the city with signposts until the mid-2010s, after Rocher's death.<ref name=Rocher>{{cite news|last1=Whitehouse|first1=Simon|title=Ragged Ass Road pioneer remembered|url=http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2013-05/may3_13lr.html|access-date=March 8, 2015|publisher=[[Northern News Services]]|date=May 3, 2013}}</ref> It has been described as one of the most famous streets in Canada. Singer [[Tom Cochrane]] named [[Ragged Ass Road (album)|his 1995 album]] after it, including a song about the street.
-It has been described as "one of the most famous streets" in Canada; singer [[Tom Cochrane]] named [[Ragged Ass Road|his 1995 album]] after it, including a song about the street. In 2012 crime novelist [[Kathy Reichs]], a producer of the TV series ''[[Bones (TV series)|Bones]]'', set a scene in her novel ''[[Bones Are Forever]]'' along Ragged Ass. A nearby art gallery and gift shop sells souvenirs with the street's name.<ref name="Gallery of the Midnight Sun">{{cite web|title=Ragged Ass Road|url=http://galleryofthemidnightsun.com/ragged-ass-road/ |location=New York |publisher=Gallery of the Midnight Sun, Pocket Books|accessdate=September 19, 2015}}</ref>
 ==Street==
+Ragged Ass Road is in a residential area midway between the intersection of Franklin (50th) Avenue, Yellowknife's main street, and School Draw Avenue, its lake shore road, and Yellowknife Bay on the north arm of [[Great Slave Lake]].<ref name="ACME Mapper">{{cite map|title=ACME Mapper|url=http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=62.46063,-114.35256&z=11&t=H|publisher=ACME Laboratories |cartography=[[Google Maps]]|access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref> The terrain is flat, at approximately {{convert|160|m}} in elevation, reflecting the proximity of the lake.<ref name="topo map">{{cite map|title=Atlas of Canada Toporama |url=http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/toporama/en/index.html?id=map3&extent=-954931.7917019159,1616279.784957654,-953407.7886539097,1617143.3866848575&legend=cc7fde4c-0003-1cf2-8358-7ca86eefb13c,0,0,1;e5511402-0002-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,0,0.7;762eb7ed-0001-242f-6fcf-af08f5605eb1,0,0,1;762eb7ed-cccc-242f-6fcf-af08f5605eb1,0,1,undefined;e5511402-0029-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,0,1;e5511402-0028-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,0,1;e5511402-0628-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0528-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0005-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,0,1;e5511402-0027-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0026-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0025-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0021-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,1,1;e5511402-0023-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0022-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0018-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,1,1;e5511402-0020-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0019-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0014-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,1,1;e5511402-0017-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0016-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0015-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0010-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,1,1;e5511402-0013-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0012-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0011-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0011-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0009-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0007-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0004-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1 |scale=1:6,000 |series= |publisher=[[Government of Canada]] |cartography=[[Natural Resources Canada]]|access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref> The neighborhood is at the south end of the city's Old Town,<ref name="Gallery of the Midnight Sun">{{cite web|title=Ragged Ass Road|url=http://galleryofthemidnightsun.com/ragged-ass-road/ |location=Yellowknife, NWT  |publisher=Gallery of the Midnight Sun |access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Wilkinson">{{cite web |url=http://thesongiliveby.com/2012/09/28/ragged-ass-road-dog-island-film-festival-and-other-interesting-things-about-life-in-yellowknife/ |title=Ragged Ass Road, Dog Island Film Festival, and Other Interesting Things About Life in Yellowknife |work=The Song I Live By |date=September 28, 2012 |first1=Tandi |last1=Wilkinson |access-date=November 7, 2015}}</ref> on a peninsula projecting into the lake's Yellowknife Bay.<ref name="topo map" />
-Ragged Ass Road is located in a residential area midway between the intersection of Franklin (50th) Avenue, Yellowknife's main street, and School Draw Avenue, its lakeshore road, and Yellowknife Bay on the North Arm of [[Great Slave Lake]].<ref name="ACME Mapper">{{cite map|title=ACME Mapper|url=http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=62.46063,-114.35256&z=11&t=H|publisher=ACME Laboratories |cartography=[[Google Maps]]|access-date=September 19, 2015|archive-url= |archive-date= }}</ref> The terrain is flat, at approximately {{convert|160|m}} in elevation, reflecting the proximity of the lake.<ref name="topo map">{{cite map|title=Atlas of Canada Toporama |url=http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/toporama/en/index.html?id=map3&extent=-954931.7917019159,1616279.784957654,-953407.7886539097,1617143.3866848575&legend=cc7fde4c-0003-1cf2-8358-7ca86eefb13c,0,0,1;e5511402-0002-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,0,0.7;762eb7ed-0001-242f-6fcf-af08f5605eb1,0,0,1;762eb7ed-cccc-242f-6fcf-af08f5605eb1,0,1,undefined;e5511402-0029-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,0,1;e5511402-0028-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,0,1;e5511402-0628-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0528-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0005-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,0,1;e5511402-0027-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0026-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0025-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0021-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,1,1;e5511402-0023-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0022-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0018-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,1,1;e5511402-0020-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0019-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0014-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,1,1;e5511402-0017-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0016-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0015-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;8a9bb0ab-0010-32b1-6715-be42194945aa,0,1,1;e5511402-0013-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0012-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0011-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0011-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0009-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0007-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1;e5511402-0004-5cbe-0d3c-f537c612b7df,0,1,1 |scale=1:6,000 |series= |publisher=[[Government of Canada]] |cartography=[[Natural Resources Canada]]|access-date=September 19, 2015|archive-url=|archive-date=}}</ref> The neighborhood is at the southern end of the city's Old Town,<ref name="Gallery of the Midnight Sun" /> on a peninsula projecting into the lake's Yellowknife Bay.<ref name="topo map" />
 The southern terminus is at Brock Drive, three blocks east of School Draw. From there it follows a north-northeast heading, bending more to the northeast midway along its {{convert|150|m|ft|adj=on}} length, then back to its original heading as it reaches its north terminus at Hamilton Drive. Along with its neighboring streets it is [[dirt road|unpaved]] for its entire length.<ref name="ACME Mapper" />
-With the exception of one large [[bedrock]] outcrop in the middle of the western side of the street, all the [[land lot|lots]] along the street are [[land development|developed]] with [[timber frame|wood frame]] residences of modern construction and associated outbuildings. Some small [[deciduous tree]]s grow amidst them.<ref name="ACME Mapper Street View">Per the [[Google Street View]] option at the ACME Mapper link given above.</ref> (in her novel ''[[Bones Are Forever]]'', American writer [[Kathy Reichs]] described the prevailing [[architectural style]] of Ragged Ass as "northern hodgepodge".{{sfn|Reichs|2013|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yTNoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA168 168–170]}}>) Addresses are in the range of 3901–3921, following Yellowknife's [[grid pattern|grid-based]] numbering system. They are in the [[postal codes in Canada|postal code]] [[List of X postal codes of Canada|X1A]] 2T4.<ref name="Canada postal codes site" />
+With the exception of one large [[bedrock]] outcrop in the middle of the west side of the street, all the [[land lot|lots]] along the street are [[land development|developed]] with [[timber frame|wood frame]] residences of modern construction and associated outbuildings. Some small [[deciduous tree]]s grow among them.<ref name="ACME Mapper Street View">Per the [[Google Street View]] option at the ACME Mapper link given above.</ref> (In her novel ''[[Bones Are Forever]]'', American writer [[Kathy Reichs]] described the prevailing [[architectural style]] of Ragged Ass as "northern hodgepodge".{{sfn|Reichs|2013|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yTNoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA168 168–170]}}) Addresses are in the range of 3901–3921, following Yellowknife's [[grid pattern|grid-based]] numbering system. Its [[postal codes in Canada|postal code]] is [[List of X postal codes of Canada|X1A]] 2T4.<ref name="Canada postal codes site" />
 ==History==
+The construction date of Ragged Ass Road is unknown. Yellowknife was significantly settled only after a 1935 [[gold rush]]. After a few years, development was interrupted by [[Military history of Canada during World War II|World War II]], only to resume afterwards. At that time most development was on the peninsula, in the area known today as Old Town. The road may have started as a narrow alley where residents cut wood to building the [[barge]]s that carried freight to and from the growing settlement across [[Great Slave Lake]].<ref name="NNSL T-shirt story">{{cite news|last=Hudson|first=Katherine|title=Ragged Ass Road gets a rough ride|url=http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2012-10/oct17_12rag.html|newspaper=[[Northern News Services]]|date=October 17, 2012|access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref> By 1957, when [[Saskatchewan]] native Lou Rocher settled in the area,<ref name=Rocher /> it existed and was known unofficially as Privy Road due to the many [[outhouse]]s along it.<ref name="Gallery of the Midnight Sun" />
-The construction date of Ragged Ass Road is unknown. Yellowknife was significantly settled only after a 1935 [[gold rush]]; after a few years, development was interrupted by [[Military history of Canada during World War II|World War II]], only to resume afterwards. At that time most development was on the peninsula, in the area known today as Old Town. The road may have started as a narrow alley where residents cut wood to building the [[barge]]s that carried freight to and from the growing settlement across [[Great Slave Lake]].<ref name="NNSL T-shirt story">{{cite news|last=Hudson|first=Katherine|title=Ragged Ass Road gets a rough ride|url=http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2012-10/oct17_12rag.html|newspaper=[[Northern News Services]]|date=October 17, 2012|accessdate=September 19, 2015}}</ref> By 1957, when [[Saskatchewan]] native Lou Rocher settled in the area,<ref name=Rocher /> it existed and was known unofficially as Privy Road due to the many [[outhouse]]s along it.<ref name="Gallery of the Midnight Sun" />
 Rocher made his living through several vocations, selling [[firewood]], [[commercial fishing]], but primarily [[prospecting]]. He eventually came to live on Privy Road, where he owned several [[land lot|lots]] on the street. On them he built homes and cabins, often letting people in need live there.<ref name=Rocher />
-One night near the end of the 1970 season, in which he and fellow prospectors had worked hard but found far less, he was drinking with some of them in the family [[Quonset hut]]. Reflecting on their circumstances, Rocher joked that the street should be named "Ragged Ass Road" since they were all "ragged ass broke." "[My father] felt he should be able to name it because he owned six of the nine lots on the road and he thought he could name it appropriately," his son recalled later. The men put up a sign that night.<ref name=Rocher /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Heal |first1=Tyler |title=The Times Behind the Signs: The History Behind Yellowknife's Street Names |location=Yellowknife |publisher=Crescent Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-9739420-0-2}}</ref> The term's use as a place name might not have been original; there was reportedly a Ragged Ass Mine on the lake in earlier years.<ref name="Guardian piece">{{cite news|last=Malcolm|first=David|title=Letter from Canada: Yellowknife, gateway to the Arctic|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/18/letter-from-canada-yellowknife |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=October 18, 2011|accessdate=September 19, 2015}}</ref>
+One night near the end of 1970, in which he and fellow prospectors had worked hard but found far less, he was drinking with some of them in the family [[Quonset hut]]. Reflecting on their circumstances, Rocher joked that the street should be named "Ragged Ass Road" since they were all "ragged ass broke". "[My father] felt he should be able to name it because he owned six of the nine lots on the road and he thought he could name it appropriately", his son recalled later. The men put up a sign that night.<ref name=Rocher /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Heal |first1=Tyler |title=The Times Behind the Signs: The History Behind Yellowknife's Street Names |location=Yellowknife |publisher=Crescent Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-9739420-0-2}}</ref> The term's use as a place name might not have been original. There was reportedly a Ragged Ass Mine on the lake in earlier years.<ref name="Guardian piece">{{cite news|last=Malcolm|first=David|title=Letter from Canada: Yellowknife, gateway to the Arctic|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/18/letter-from-canada-yellowknife |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=October 18, 2011|access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref>
-The name caught on, if not formally. Officially the city still considered the street to have no name, but Rocher made his own signs, replacing them after visiting tourists [[street sign theft|stole them]]. Eventually they were [[welding|welded]] them to the post, and gift shops in the city started selling replicas.<ref name="Gallery of the Midnight Sun" /> During the 1980s, Rocher clashed with Yellowknife's municipal government over a survey of the area. At one point he even blocked the street off to keep city employees away.<ref name=Rocher />
+The name caught on, if not formally. Officially the city still considered the street to have no name, but Rocher made his own signs, replacing them after visiting tourists [[street sign theft|stole them]]. Eventually they were [[welding|welded]] to their posts, and gift shops in the city started selling replicas.<ref name="Gallery of the Midnight Sun" /> During the 1980s, Rocher clashed with Yellowknife's municipal government over a survey of the area. At one point he even blocked the street off to keep city employees away.<ref name=Rocher />
-In 1995 former [[Red Rider]] lead singer [[Tom Cochrane]] named his third album ''[[Ragged Ass Road]]'' after the street. The title track of the album described a place "''Where the shore fires burn out on a new frontier'' ..." and had the chorus "''Oh did you find the [[midnight sun]]<ref group="Note">While the midnight sun is often associated with Yellowknife, it is south of the [[Arctic Circle]] and only experiences white nights, where the sun dips just below the horizon for a few hours of twilight, in the summertime, rather than the full midnight sun.</ref> Down on Ragged Ass Road.''"<ref name="Ragged Ass Road song lyrics">{{cite web|title=Tom Cochrane – Ragged Ass Road lyrics|url=http://www.lyricsmine.com/lyrics/18162/Tom_Cochrane/Ragged_Ass_Road|publisher=Lyrics Mine|accessdate=September 19, 2015}}</ref> It added to the road's allure as a [[tourist attraction]], but the city still demurred from making the name official.<ref name=Rocher />
+In 1995 former [[Red Rider]] lead singer [[Tom Cochrane]] named his third album ''[[Ragged Ass Road (album)|Ragged Ass Road]]'' after the street. The title track of the album described a place "Where the shore fires burn out on a new frontier" and had the chorus "Oh did you find the [[midnight sun]]"{{efn-ua|While the midnight sun is often associated with Yellowknife, it is south of the [[Arctic Circle]] and only experiences white nights, where the sun dips just below the horizon for a few hours of twilight in the summertime, rather than the full midnight sun.}}  Down on Ragged Ass Road".<ref name="Ragged Ass Road song lyrics">{{cite web|title=Tom Cochrane – Ragged Ass Road lyrics|url=http://www.lyricsmine.com/lyrics/18162/Tom_Cochrane/Ragged_Ass_Road|publisher=Lyrics Mine|access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref> It added to the road's allure as a [[tourist attraction]], but the city still demurred from making the name official.<ref name=Rocher />
-The city was not unique in its reluctance to embrace the name despite its popularity. In 2004, a small town in the U.S. state of [[Ohio]] mailed a Ragged Ass Road sign back to Yellowknife's city government after having confiscated it from a homeowner as inappropriate for public display. Eight years later a [[British Columbia]] man flying out of [[Vancouver International Airport|Vancouver]] on [[WestJet]] with a Ragged Ass Road T-shirt was told by a [[flight attendant]] to either cover it up or turn it inside out for the duration of the flight since the airline was "family-friendly". He chose the former option, but when the incident made national news, WestJet apologized. When it did so, it posted to its [[Instagram]] account a  photo of a Ragged Ass Road sign that had been on the office wall of its [[chief executive officer]], [[Gregg Saretsky]], for two years.  Yellowknife city officials made it a point to meet with WestJet officials to come to a common understanding: the t-shirts are a tourist draw.<ref name=Rocher /><ref name="WestJet CBC story">{{cite news|title=WestJet apologizes after Ragged Ass Road shirt flap|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/westjet-apologizes-after-ragged-ass-road-shirt-flap-1.1194342|newspaper=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]|date=October 16, 2012|accessdate=September 19, 2015}}</ref><ref name="NNSL T-shirt story" />
+The city was not unique in its reluctance to embrace the name despite its popularity. In 2004, a small town in the U.S. state of [[Ohio]] mailed a Ragged Ass Road sign back to Yellowknife's city government after having confiscated it from a homeowner as inappropriate for public display. Eight years later a [[British Columbia]] man flying out of [[Vancouver International Airport|Vancouver]] on [[WestJet]] with a Ragged Ass Road T-shirt was told by a [[flight attendant]] to either cover it up or turn it inside out for the duration of the flight since the airline was "family-friendly". He chose the former option, but when the incident made national news, WestJet apologized. When it did so, it posted to its [[Instagram]] account a  photo of a Ragged Ass Road sign that had been on the office wall of its [[chief executive officer]], [[Gregg Saretsky]], for two years.  Yellowknife city officials made it a point to meet with WestJet officials to come to a common understanding: the T-shirts are a tourist draw.<ref name=Rocher /><ref name="NNSL T-shirt story" /><ref name="WestJet CBC story">{{cite news|title=WestJet apologizes after Ragged Ass Road shirt flap|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/westjet-apologizes-after-ragged-ass-road-shirt-flap-1.1194342|newspaper=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]|date=October 16, 2012|access-date=September 19, 2015}}</ref>
-The year before, [[crime novel]]ist and [[forensic anthropology|forensic anthropologist]] [[Kathy Reichs]], a producer of the American television series ''[[Bones (TV series)|Bones]]'', had attended the NorthWords [[literary festival]] in Yellowknife. She liked the city so much she set part of her next novel, ''[[Bones Are Forever]]'', there.<ref name="Reichs 369">Reichs, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yTNoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA369 369]</ref><ref name="Reichs NPR interview">{{cite interview |last=Reichs |first=Kathy |subject-link=Kathy Reichs|interviewer=[[Ira Flatow]] |title=Meet the Brains Behind 'Bones' |url=http://www.npr.org/2012/08/31/160391684/meet-the-brains-behind-bones |call-sign=[[National Public Radio]] |city= |date= |program=[[Talk of the Nation Science Friday]]|access-date=September 20, 2015}}</ref> In one scene her main character, [[Temperance Brennan]], a forensic anthropologist like her creator, trails a suspect from downtown Yellowknife to Ragged Ass Road on a cold morning, giving her a chance to describe it:
+The year before, [[crime novel]]ist and [[forensic anthropology|forensic anthropologist]] [[Kathy Reichs]], a producer of the American television series ''[[Bones (TV series)|Bones]]'', had attended the NorthWords [[literary festival]] in Yellowknife. She liked the city so much she set part of her next novel, ''[[Bones Are Forever]]'', there.{{sfn|Reichs|2013|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yTNoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA369 369]}}<ref name="Reichs NPR interview">{{cite interview |last=Reichs |first=Kathy |subject-link=Kathy Reichs|interviewer=[[Ira Flatow]] |title=Meet the Brains Behind 'Bones' |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/08/31/160391684/meet-the-brains-behind-bones |publisher=[[National Public Radio]] |date= |work=[[Talk of the Nation Science Friday]]|access-date=September 20, 2015}}</ref> In one scene her main character, [[Temperance Brennan]], a forensic anthropologist like her creator, trails a suspect from downtown Yellowknife to Ragged Ass Road on a cold morning, giving her a chance to describe it:
-{{quote|A sign on a rock said ''Ragged Ass Road''. That's one you'd never see on the Queen City<ref group="Note">A reference to the American city of [[Charlotte, North Carolina]], where Brennan, like Reichs, lives for part of the year. A few paragraphs before this, Brennan had noted how 50th Avenue's apparent sudden change of name to Franklin Avenue north of downtown Yellowknife was a phenomenon she was used to from Charlotte's streets.</ref> map ... The neighborhood was residential, with browned-out grass hugging up to the road and utility wires hanging low overhead. I smelled fishy water and [[bracken]] mud and sensed a lake nearby ... The newer homes looked like they'd been [[Kit houses in North America|assembled from mail-order kits]]. [[Aluminum siding]]. Prefab windows. Faux-[[Colonial Revival architecture|colonial]] shutters and doors ... The older ones resembled cottages at a [[hippie]] [[summer camp]]. Un[[wood stain|stained]] [[timber framing|frame]] exteriors painted with murals or images taken from nature. Metal [[downspout]]s and smokestacks. Whirligigs, plastic animals, and [[Garden gnome|ceramic gnomes]] in the yards or topping the fences ... Every house had at least one outbuilding, a rusted tank, and a mound of firewood.<ref name="Bones Are Forever" />}}
+{{blockquote|A sign on a rock said ''Ragged Ass Road''. That's one you'd never see on the Queen City{{efn-ua|A reference to the American city of [[Charlotte, North Carolina]], where Brennan, like Reichs, lives for part of the year. A few paragraphs before this, Brennan had noted how 50th Avenue's apparent sudden change of name to Franklin Avenue north of downtown Yellowknife was a phenomenon she was used to from Charlotte's streets.}} map&nbsp;... The neighborhood was residential, with browned-out grass hugging up to the road and utility wires hanging low overhead. I smelled fishy water and [[bracken]] mud and sensed a lake nearby&nbsp;...The newer homes looked like they'd been [[Kit houses in North America|assembled from mail-order kits]]. [[Aluminum siding]]. Prefab windows. Faux-[[Colonial Revival architecture|colonial]] shutters and doors&nbsp;... The older ones resembled cottages at a [[hippie]] [[summer camp]]. Un[[wood stain|stained]] [[timber framing|frame]] exteriors painted with murals or images taken from nature. Metal [[downspout]]s and smokestacks. Whirligigs, plastic animals, and [[Garden gnome|ceramic gnomes]] in the yards or topping the fences ... Every house had at least one outbuilding, a rusted tank, and a mound of firewood.{{sfn|Reichs|2013|pages=}}}}
+According to Murtaza Haider, professor and director of [[Toronto Metropolitan University]]'s Institute of Housing and Mobility, it is claimed that this street is an example of a "poorly named street&nbsp;... [that] create[s] negative shift in market value."{{efn-ua|
-http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=a3084242-0873-4edc-b7af-570fd4e1ee8a
+"Residents of Canada's Dingle Bingle Hill Terrace, Cheapside Street, Ragged Ass Road and Bastard Ward consider yourselves warned: There is a small but noteworthy negative effect between a badly named street and the perceived market value of homes or businesses that reside on it&nbsp;..."  Conversely, a well-regarded street name, e.g. [[Bloor Street]] in [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]], Canada, can have a measurable positive effect on perceived value and price.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=a3084242-0873-4edc-b7af-570fd4e1ee8a |title=Poorly named streets create negative shift in market value, real estate expert finds |publisher=CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. |access-date=November 5, 2015}}</ref>}}
+"Ragged Ass" street sign replicas are sold in the area. Nevertheless, [[Street sign theft|the signs have been stolen]] so frequently that the city has had them welded to their posts.<ref name="Zahir">{{cite news |url= http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB14Ak01.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080514080156/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB14Ak01.html |url-status= unfit |archive-date= May 14, 2008 |first1=Fazile |last1=Zahir |location=Fethiye, Turkey|title=Kebabble: Turkey's costly signs of the times |work=[[Asia Times]] Online |date= February 4, 2008 |access-date=November 7, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-licence-plate-vancouver-1.3376797 |title=N.W.T. licence plate theft riles Vancouver cafe owners - North - CBC News |publisher=Cbc.ca |date=2015-12-22 |access-date=2016-09-18}}</ref>
-According to Murtaza Haider, professor and director of [[Ryerson University]]'s Institute of Housing and Mobility, it is claimed that this street is an example of a "Poorly named street... [that] create[s] negative shift in market value."{{efn-ua|
-"Residents of Canada's Dingle Bingle Hill Terrace, Cheapside Street, Ragged Ass Road and Bastard Ward consider yourselves warned: There is a small but noteworthy negative effect between a badly named street and the perceived market value of homes or businesses that reside on it..."  Conversely, a well regarded street name, e.g. Bloor Street in Toronto, can have a measurable effect on perceived valued and price.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=a3084242-0873-4edc-b7af-570fd4e1ee8a |title=Poorly named streets create negative shift in market value, real estate expert finds |publisher=CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. |accessdate=November 5, 2015}}</ref>}}
 Lou Rocher died in May 2013 and was remembered around Yellowknife most prominently for giving Ragged Ass Road its name. Despite that, his family noted, at that time the city still had not installed official street signs with the name.<ref name=Rocher /> As of 2015, there are city signs at both ends of the road.
 ==See also==
-*{{portal-inline|Canada Roads}}
+*{{Portal-inline|Roads}}
-*{{portal-inline|Northwest Territories}}
+*{{portal-inline|Canada}}
-==References==
+==Notes==
-===Notes===
 {{Reflist|group=upper-alpha}}
-===Citations===
+==References==
 {{reflist|30em}}
-===Sources===
+==Further reading==
-*{{cite book|last1=Reichs|first1=Kathy|authorlink1=Kathy Reichs|title=Bones Are Forever|date=2013|location=New York |publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]], Pocket Books|isbn=9781439102442|pages=168–170|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTNoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA168|accessdate=September 19, 2015 |ref=harv}}
+*{{cite book|last1=Reichs|first1=Kathy|authorlink1=Kathy Reichs|title=Bones Are Forever|date=2013|location=New York |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]], Pocket Books|isbn=9781439102442|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bonesareforevera00reic/page/168 168]–170|url=https://archive.org/details/bonesareforevera00reic|url-access=registration|access-date=September 19, 2015 }}
 ==External links==
-*{{commonscat-inline|Ragged Ass Road}}
+*{{commons category-inline|Ragged Ass Road}}
 {{NT Roads}}
 [[Category:Transport in Yellowknife]]
 [[Category:Roads in the Northwest Territories]]

v t e Roads and highways in the Northwest Territories
Highways	Highway 1 (Mackenzie) Highway 2 (Hay River) Highway 3 (Yellowknife) Highway 4 (Ingraham) Highway 5 (Fort Smith) Highway 6 (Fort Resolution) Highway 7 (Liard) Highway 8 (Dempster) Highway 9 (Tłı̨chǫ) Highway 10 (Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk)
Other roads	Canol Road Deh Cho Bridge Ragged Ass Road Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road (permanently closed)