Wawa, Ontario
Encyclopedia
Wawa is a township
Township (Canada)
The term township generally means the district or area associated with a town. However in some systems no town needs to be involved. The specific use of the term to describe political subdivisions has varied by country, usually to describe a local rural or semi-rural government within the county...

 in the Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 province of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, located within the Algoma District. Formerly known as the township of Michipicoten, the township was officially renamed for its largest and best-known community in 2009.

The township also includes the smaller communities of Michipicoten and Michipicoten River, which are small port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 settlements on the shore of Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

.

History

Wawa's history is rich in mining, forestry and the fur trade. Although mining attempts began as early as the late 1660s, it wasn't until 1896 that gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 was discovered on nearby Wawa Lake
Wawa Lake
Wawa Lake is a lake located in northeastern Ontario, Canada in the Algoma District, near the town of Wawa....

 which led to a rush to the area. The population grew from a handful of people to approximately a thousand people.

In 1898 the town site at the Mission was registered as "Michipicoten City". In 1899 Wawa was surveyed and plotted into a town and registered as Wawa City. In the latter half of the 1950s, the town's name was changed to Jamestown, in honour of Sir James Hamet Dunn
James Hamet Dunn
Sir James Hamet Dunn, 1st Baronet was a major Canadian financier and industrialist during the first half of the 20th century.-Early life:...

, but it was later changed back to Wawa by the request of the community's residents.

Gold production had slowed by 1906, but as mining technology improved, additional amounts began to be extracted from the area. Gold mining in the Wawa area prospered and receded several times in the 20th century, and it continues today.

Iron ore extraction has also been an important industry in the area. The community was served by the Algoma Central Railway
Algoma Central Railway
The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst, with a branch line to Michipicoten. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads...

.

The search for the elusive precious yellow metal during the Michipicoten gold boom led to the unexpected discovery of iron ore in 1897. Rock samples made their way into the hands of Francis Hector Clergue
Francis Clergue
Francis Hector Clergue was an American businessman who became the leading industrialist of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in Canada, at the turn of the 20th century....

, an American entrepreneur who at once recognized the ore for its potential in the form of a steel company in the industrial future of Sault Ste. Marie.

The first supply of ore extracted form the Helen Mine was shipped to Midland, Ontario
Midland, Ontario
Midland is a town located on Georgian Bay in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada.Situated at the southern end of Georgian Bay's 30,000 Islands, Midland is the economic centre of the region, with a 125-bed hospital and a local airport. It is the main town of the southern Georgian Bay area...

 in July 1900 and thus became the "first boat shipment of Canadian iron ore to a Canadian port." The mine produced high grade iron ore until 1903 when operations shut down due to financial difficulties which were confronting Clergue and his company. By 1904 the mine returned to full production capabilities and was mining 1000 tons of hematite
Hematite
Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...

 ore a day. From 1900 to 1918 the Helen Mine had the largest production of any iron mine in Canada during that period.

In 1909 a second hematite ore deposit was uncovered near the Magpie River
Magpie River (Ontario)
The Magpie River is a river in Algoma District, northeastern Ontario, Canada that empties into Michipicoten Bay on Lake Superior near the town of Wawa...

 12 miles north of the Helen Mine. The Algoma Steel Corporation
Algoma Steel
See also Algoma Essar Steel Algoma is an integrated primary steel producer located on the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Its products are sold in Canada and the United States as well as overseas. Algoma Steel was founded in 1902 by Francis Clergue, an American entrepreneur...

, organized between 1904 and 1909 in Sault Ste. Marie, bought up the claims and operated both the Magpie and the Helen Mine for the next decade.

The Helen Mine continued ore production until the year 1918 when they felt the reserve of hematite ore was finally depleted. The same fate was followed by the Magpie Mine in 1921. The Census of Canada records that the population of the Michipicoten region in 1921 experienced a drop from 1001 in 1911 to 101 ten years later.

It was not until 1937 with the threat of war in Europe and the emergence of a profitable market for Canadian iron ore, that the Helen Mine was re-opened. A sintering plant was constructed on the northern bank of the Magpie River two miles west of the mine to treat the siderite
Siderite
Siderite is a mineral composed of iron carbonate FeCO3. It takes its name from the Greek word σίδηρος sideros, “iron”. It is a valuable iron mineral, since it is 48% iron and contains no sulfur or phosphorus...

 ore before shipping it to the blast furnaces at Algoma Steel in the Sault. The plant became the centre for a small community of workers and their families called Sinterville.

The Helen Mine remained an open pit operation until 1950 when all production was from underground mining. In 1960 the new George W. MacLeod Mine went into production adjacent to the Helen Mine. The ore was transported on an aerial tramline which consisted of over 280 steel, 3 ton buckets travelling underground and surfacing three quarter miles west of the 2066 foot vertical MacLeod Shaft, then continuing the remaining two miles to the sinter plant on overhead cables. In 1979 this system was replaced by the latest in underground mining technology, the highest lift single-drive conveyor in the world.

During the summer of 1971, Wawa hosted an archaeological field camp, known as the Wawa Drop-In project or the Big Dig, for young hitchhikers travelling along Highway 17. The project was directed by the late Professor KCA Dawson. and supported by the Federal Government as part of its youth employment program. The results of fieldwork at several important sites were never published, though all the records are currently held by the National Museums of Civilisation in Ottawa.

Throughout the nineties, Algoma Ore and Wawa continued to be challenged by international markets that plagued both the gold and iron mining industries. In December 1997, Algoma Steel announced that they could no longer support the high cost of extracting low grade iron from Algoma Ore. Even though Wawa's mountain of iron ore still had more to give, operations were shut down in June 1998, 100 years after iron was first discovered in this remote corner of Northern Algoma.

Wawa suffered a population decline after the Helen Mine and Algoma Ore Division sinter plant shut down, leaving its main industries as forestry and tourism. In recent years, diamond prospecting and proposals to create a trap rock
Trap rock
Trap rock is a form of igneous rock that tends to form polygonal vertical fractures, most typically hexagonal, but also four to eight sided. The fracture pattern forms when magma of suitable chemical composition intrudes as a sill or extrudes as a thick lava flow, and slowly cools.Because of the...

 mine on the shore of Lake Superior have been taking place, however no mining activities of any kind have yet been established.

In another blow to the town's economy, in October 2007, Weyerhauser, which operates an oriented strandboard mill 30 km east of the town, announced an indefinite shutdown of their mill. The final production shift is slated to run at the end of December 2007, and with current demands for wood products being very low, it is unlikely to reopen any time in the near future. Wawa's economy will likely suffer a near-collapse in the coming year, as over 135 more jobs are lost, causing more residents to move away; this is expected to have a spin-off effect on other businesses.

With the current collapse of the forestry industry not only in Wawa, but in the neighbouring communities of Dubreuilville and White River
White River, Ontario
White River is a township located in Ontario, Canada, on the intersection of Highway 17 and Highway 631. It was originally set up as a rail town on the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885...

, the municipality of Wawa is facing grave difficulties attracting new industry to the community and region.

Most of the movie Snow Cake
Snow Cake
Snow Cake is a 2006 independent drama film directed by Marc Evans and starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Hampshire, and Callum Keith Rennie...

(2006) takes place (and was filmed) in Wawa.

Demographics

Population trend:
  • Population in 2006: 3204
  • Population in 2001: 3668
  • Population in 1996: 4145
  • Population in 1991: 4154

Tourism and attractions

The community is known for its 28-foot-tall metal statue of a Canada goose
Canada Goose
The Canada Goose is a wild goose belonging to the genus Branta, which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body....

, which was built in 1960, and dedicated to the community in 1961. Wawa takes its name from the Ojibwe
Ojibwe language
Ojibwe , also called Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of the Algonquian language family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems...

 word for "wild goose", wewe. Wawa was defined as wild goose in the Songs of Hiawatha. On July 5, 2010, Canada Post made a commemorative stamp of the Wawa Goose as part of its Roadside Attractions collection.

The town is also known for snowmobiling and sport fishing. The Voyageur Hiking Trail
Voyageur Hiking Trail
The Voyageur Hiking Trail is a public hiking trail between Sudbury and Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario, Canada. The name honours the early European fur traders of the region who traveled largely by canoe and were known as 'voyageurs’ and ‘coureurs des bois’ The trail is used by all ages and levels...

 passes through the town. One notable shopping location is Young's General Store, home of the locally famous Pickle Barrel.

Politics

The municipal council is composed of one mayor and four councillors. The current mayor is Howard Whent and the councillors are Linda Nowicki, Ron Rody, Mike Abbott, and Ken Martin.

Transportation

Highway 17, the main route of the Trans-Canada Highway
Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...

, passes through the township, although the primary townsite is located on Highway 101, two kilometres east of the junction with Highway 17. Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in...

 is located 227 kilometres to the south. Lake Superior Provincial Park
Lake Superior Provincial Park
Lake Superior Provincial Park is one of the largest provincial parks in Ontario, covering about along the northeastern shores of Lake Superior between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie in Algoma District, Northeastern Ontario, Canada...

 is located just south of the town.

Wawa is located 24 kilometres west of Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

's Hawk Junction station on the rail line from Sault Ste. Marie to Hearst. The line, formerly known as the Algoma Central Railway
Algoma Central Railway
The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst, with a branch line to Michipicoten. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads...

, provides tourist operations, as well as passenger and freight service to communities in northern Ontario.

A dial-in/demand response transit system has been available since February 2006. The service is provided by a single bus that can accommodate 12 passengers plus up to two wheelchairs.

Wawa is notorious for its difficulty to hitchhike from. Travellers often become stranded for a week or more.

Climate

Notable people from Wawa

Wawa is home to former NHL hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 players Chris Simon
Chris Simon
Chris Simon is a former Canadian professional ice hockey left winger whose last club was UHC Dynamo of the Kontinental Hockey League . He played 15 seasons in the NHL.-Minor hockey:...

 and Denny Lambert
Denny Lambert
Denny Lambert is a former professional Canadian ice hockey player. Lambert played in the National Hockey League for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim , Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators and the Atlanta Thrashers between 1995 and 2002. He has also coached the Sault Ste...

.

External links

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