The TAGE Name
The story of the name TAGE starts on a trail in Northern California.
One spring morning in 1993, I went hiking with friends up the six-mile trail to the summit of Mount St. Helena, just outside Napa Valley. The 360-degree views from the top are spectacular. It is the highest peak in any direction for at least ninety miles, and the summit is home to an impressive cluster of antennas, cell towers, satellite dishes, and power lines.
While exploring an isolated pile of rocks at the top, I looked down and saw a word staring back up at me. It was a rectangular stencil that clearly read TAGE. I picked it up and turned it over. What was a TAGE, and why was it at the top of this mountain? It had to be an acronym of some kind. I tucked the stencil into my pack and headed down the trail.
On the way down, I mentioned it to my friends. Nobody had heard of TAGE or could guess what it stood for. Back in civilization, I looked it up. TAGE was not an English word. In German, it translates to "days." That didn't explain why it was on top of a mountain.
At the time, we were just days away from a trip to Alaska. We had backpacks, sleeping bags, and all manner of gear organized and ready. Since the stencil had no clear meaning, we decided to make it ours. We spray-painted TAGE on every piece of gear we could find. Overnight, it became a household name—at least in our house.
A few days later, I pulled the stencil out again and examined it more carefully. It was a perfectly formed rectangle, except for one rough edge. It wasn't until I inspected that leading edge closely that it finally hit me. This stencil had never said TAGE. It was a fragment of something larger.
I thought back to where I found it: the summit of a mountain covered in telecommunications equipment and electrical infrastructure. Of course. I laughed out loud. The original stencil read: HIGH VOLTAGE.
When it came time to file for my first business license in Anchorage, Alaska, there was only one choice. TAGE was born.