Wawa

Wawa (pop. 3,000) is a former mining town on a sparsely-populated section of the Trans-Canada Highway in Northern Ontario.

Understand
Wawa, named for an Ojibway word meaning “Wild Goose”, served as a French fur trade post from 1725 and as a mining town since a gold rush in 1896. Iron ore (hematite) was found in 1897; the last of the mines closed a century later. Forestry was also once a major local industry, but is in decline in the Wawa, Dubreuilville and White River region as Weyerhauser closed its oriented strandboard mill in 2007. The local population, close to 6,000 at its 1990s peak, has dropped by half in about twenty years; portions of the town and highway were damaged by a flood in 2012.

The last Ontario section of the Trans-Canada Highway, 250 km (150 miles) from Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa, was completed in 1960. As the new highway bypassed downtown Wawa by a mile, a 28-foot-tall Canada Goose was constructed at the Highway 17 / 101 intersection, the entrance to the town, to make Wawa easily visible to visitors.

By car

 * From the north and south: Wawa straddles a sparsely-populated stretch of Highway 17 (Trans-Canada Highway). Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) to the south and Thunder Bay to the northwest are the nearest cities of any size.
 * From the east: Highway 101 from Chapleau

By bus

 * Operates a bus route multiple days per week between Thunder Bay and Sault Sainte Marie including stops in Red Rock, Nipigon, Schreiber, Terrace Bay, Marathon, White River, and Wawa.

By thumb
Wawa is recognized as a notorious hitchhiker's trap - easy to get to, but impossible to leave. Enter at your own risk.

If you're planning on hitchhiking your way out, good luck. The best place to thumb a ride is near the Wawa Goose.

Get around
Wawa is a small town where everything is a short walk away.



Go next
Lake Superior Provincial Park - hiking, paddling, fishing, two serviced campgrounds for RVs and tents, one rustic campground, 200 backcountry campsites, all a short drive (or what passes for one around these parts) from town.