The Big Goose

Sunday, August 23, 2015

The signature icon of Wawa is the goose statue.  We were interested in its history and significance; thought you might be curious also.  In 1960, the last link of the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 17) in Ontario was finally completed linking Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie and Western Canada. The highway by-passed the town’s downtown business core, located on Hwy 101. Local businesses worried that travellers would pass them by.

A local entrepreneur, Mr. Al Turcott, came up with the idea to place a large scale monument of a Canadian Goose at the junction of the new Trans Canada Highway and Hwy. 101 at the entrance to town. Wawa means “Wild Goose” in Ojibway so it made sense that a Goose monument would welcome visitors on Canada’s newest highway. The first famous goose monument was erected on September 17th, 1960 and was made of hand mixed plaster and chicken wire. With the new goose constructed, the next thought was would this work? Well it did! The goose is what Wawa is known for all around the world and millions of visitors have stopped to view it and take pictures. As a matter of fact, several postcard companies say it proved to be the best selling card on the Circle Route around Lake Superior. There have also been pictures of it in papers in Australia, Germany, Japan, and of course in the U.S.A.

The original plaster sculpture did not stand up to local weather and in 1963, the Township had a new monument constructed from the Algoma Steel which was more representative of Wawa and its large iron ore mine. This is the monument that still stands today, but is rusting around the edges, so there is a drive on to fund a new goose.

The town of Wawa is a small, quaint, little place with mostly motels, restaurants, and gas stations.  It had its heyday back in the late 1800s when gold was discovered, but that lasted only a couple of years.  A big logging boom occurred through out the 1800s.  The Magpie River was used to float logs into Superior.

The area has iron ore and was a major supplier of steel during WWII.  Today no mining takes place around here since the ore is too low grade.  So not much commerce goes on.  Not sure what folks do for money other than tourist related stuff.

It is situated on Lake Wawa, which is quite pretty, and has a decent beach.  It was surprisingly colder than Superior, but that may be because it’s spring fed.

Tomorrow we head to Marathon about 120 miles north and west.