Beautiful Wawa Ontario! home of giant Canada geese

I drove across Northern Ontario in mid-August 2008. I was looking forward to visiting that den of iniquity known as Wawa, Ontario. This is a small town on the Trans-Canada Highway that was known in the seventies as being a place where hitch-hikers would apparently spend weeks waiting for the next ride. I never got caught there myself but I heard plenty of stories.

It is also famous as being a boring place where there was nothing to do except look at the great Canadian goose that overlooks the highway. When I arrived on the morning of August 16th I was surprised that there was plenty to see and plenty to photograph. To my surprise, Wawa has not just one giant goose but three! All are on the way into town on the short detour from the highway. According to the informative information signs, the first goose was built in 1960 but eventually fell into disrepair at a place called Fort Friendship, Ontario. In the year 2000 it was restored and given a new place of honour outside the old-fashioned Young's General Store gas station. This creature weighs 150,000 lbs and stands 27 feet high.

The second goose is made of steel and overlooks the highway beside the local tourist information centre. This one was dedicated upon the highway completion in 1963. It is 28 feet high and weighs 4,400 lbs.

The third great goose is perched nearby on the roof of the Wawa Motor Inn. This one was built in 1961 at the same time as the motel.  

There was much more to photograph here, but I will leave something for my next blog.

RoadsideAmerica.com Roadside Attractions

I have been having fun the last few months submitting entries to the RoadSideAmerica web site. (If you try RoadsideCanada.com you are directed to the web site for the Big Beaver so I had to settle for Roadside America). 

Their web site is good because they appreciate the quirky side of life. Here in Edmonton we might have North America's largest shopping mall, some massive multi-billion dollar oil refineries, a wonderful park system, a classy university and an excellent LRT transit system. But for RoadsideAmerica the city is mainly famous for a big boot! 

So far they have added my photos for these attractions: 

St Paul Alberta's UFO Landing Pad 

World's Largest Mallard Duck in Andrew, 

Alberta Giant Turkey in La Riviere, 

Manitoba Giant Buffalo in Wainwright, 

Alberta Suzie the Giant Softball in Chauvin, 

Alberta Giant Bunnock in Macklin, 

Saskatchewan Giant Baseball Bat in Edmonton, 

Alberta Giant Boot in Edmonton, Alberta 

World's Largest Sausage in Mundare, Alberta 

I have made several more submissions lately that will take some time before showing up.

Northern BC and Totem Poles

Most of the past year has been spent close to home but there was one big exception. In early June I finally drove into the far north of British Columbia. I have often visited the center or BC but this was my first time driving up the Alaska Highway to the Yukon. I took a lot of photos and put a many of them online. 

After my trip I added more than 10 pages to my web site. You can access them at my Northern BC and Totem Poles index pages. The Alaska Highway drive was nice and I saw some great animals posing beside the highway. I was reminded once again just how big and empty my home province is. British Columbia is bigger than the combined area of California, Oregon and Washington states. The surprise and highlight though was the drive from Watson Lake south to Kitwanga and Stewart. The population was sparse, the weather was great and the mountains were simply awesome. I was constantly stopping in the middle of the to take photos. I think that the results were impressive. 

I also spent a couple days driving around the totem pole villages of the Kispiox, Bulkley and Skeena River valleys. Each town has an impressive collection of totems. Each town has a different style and manner of displaying their cultural heritage. So far I have only created 'under construction' pages to hold the results. 

I was lucky with the weather on most of my trip. I once worked in Kitwanga and I know just how dreary the weather can be in those mountain valleys. 

I am still doing research on the local totems. One of the best places that I have found on the net is from Sweden! The Cathedral Grove web site holds to some strange mystical concepts about large trees but they do an excellent job on BC totem poles.