The Famous Goose of Wawa

The town of Wawa, Ontario, is said to have been named after the Ojibwe word for "snow goose," wewe, or perhaps after wewegonk, the Ojibwe for "place of clear water," but as far as the residents of Wawa are concerned, "Wawa" means "wild goose," just as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow creatively opined in his epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha":

Should you ask me, whence these stories? 

Whence these legends and traditions, 

With the odors of the forest 

With the dew and damp of meadows,

With the curling smoke of wigwams,

With the rushing of great rivers,

With their frequent repetitions,

And their wild reverberations

As of thunder in the mountains?

  I should answer, I should tell you,

"From the forests and the prairies,

From the great lakes of the Northland,

From the land of the Ojibways,

From the land of the Dacotahs,

From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands

Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,

Feeds among the reeds and rushes.

I repeat them as I heard them

From the lips of Nawadaha,

The musician, the sweet singer."

  Should you ask where Nawadaha

Found these songs so wild and wayward,

Found these legends and traditions,

I should answer, I should tell you,

"In the bird's-nests of the forest,

In the lodges of the beaver,

In the hoof-prints of the bison,

In the eyry of the eagle!

  "All the wild-fowl sang them to him,

In the moorlands and the fen-lands,

In the melancholy marshes;

Chetowaik, the plover, sang them,

Mahng, the loon, the wild-goose, Wawa,

The blue heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,

And the grouse, the Mushkodasa!"

Whatever the actual origin, in 1960, when Canada finally completed the first road to Wawa, west from Sault Ste. Marie (presently Highway 17, the Trans-Canada Highway), the local residents celebrated by dedicating a statue of a wild goose as the symbol of their town.  The goose was constructed of chicken wire and hand-mixed plaster, was 27 feet high, 23 feet long, and weighed 150,000 pounds!

The poor goose quickly submitted to the elements, and was replaced by a new, steel goose, which still stands today at the visitor center which is the entrance to the town just off Highway 17:

Don't feel too wistful for the old goose, though, because she (we know it is a "she" because Stompin' Tom Connors told us so - see below) was saved and can presently be enjoyed sitting next to Young's General Store as you drive into town:

Not to be outdone, however, other townsfolk have attempted to represent the town mascot in various art forms. The only other goose statue in town is just a bit further down the road and graces the front of the Wawa Motor Inn:

So, you can see that the residents of Wawa take their geese very seriously and treat them kindly. Why, a well-known Canadian singer, Stompin' Tom Connors, even wrote a ballad about this goose (hear it performed here), "Little Wawa":

Little Wawa was a wild goose 

Who from the southland flew

In a v shaped flock of wild geese

With her lover Gander Goo

Her lover Gander Goo

They flew across North Michigan

To see the sights below

Cause they were on their honeymoon

To North Ontario

To North Ontario

Honk Honk said Little Wawa

Honk Honk my Gander Goo

In geese talk that means I love you

And I always will be true

I always will be true

Little Wawa

Little Wawa

The night was fast approaching

A dreadful hissing sound

Cause an arrow from an Indian boy

And Gander goose shot down

Gander goose fell down

The wild geese kept flying

But Wawa would not go

She stayed to find her lover

In the bush land far below

In the bush land far below

Honk Honk said Little Wawa

Honk Honk my Gander Goo

In goose talk that means I love you

And I always will be true

I always will be true

Little Wawa

Little Wawa

A goose that died of heartbreak

A legend she became

But now she’ll live forever

In a town that bears her name

A town that bears her name

If you should see her statue

On highway 17

You’ll know that you’re in Wawa

And her love song you will sing

Her love song you will sing

Honk Honk said Little Wawa

Honk Honk my Gander Goo

In goose talk that means I love you

And I always will be true

I always will be true

Little Wawa

Little Wawa