Ragged Ass Road (street)
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View north from Brock Drive, 2015
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| 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°WCoordinates: 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 |
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. But a difficult prospecting season had yielded them little income, convincing them they were "ragged ass broke" and that that should be the name of the street.
While widely used, it was somewhat controversial. The name was not officially recognized by the city with signposts until the mid-2010s, after Rocher's death. 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.
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. The terrain is flat, at approximately 160 metres (520 ft) in elevation, reflecting the proximity of the lake. The neighborhood is at the south end of the city's Old Town, on a peninsula projecting into the lake's Yellowknife Bay.
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.
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. (in her novel Bones Are Forever, American writer Kathy Reichs described the prevailing architectural style of Ragged Ass as "northern hodgepodge".>) Addresses are in the range of 3901–3921, following Yellowknife's grid-based numbering system. Its postal code X1A 2T4.
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Wikipedia