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Ragged Ass Road (Yellowknife)
Unpaved street in Yellowknife, capital of Canada's Northwest Territories / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.
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![]() 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[1] |
Coordinates | 62.46063°N 114.35256°W / 62.46063; -114.35256 |
South end | Brock Drive |
North end | Hamilton Drive |
Other | |
Known for | Unique name |
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.