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| It's a really, really big goose. |
Today
we have a sad tale, which we shall call “Mysterious Demise of a Landmark.”
I’m
talking about the apparently late, great Wawa Goose.
This
week’s bad postcard takes us to the northern shore of Lake Superior and the
little town of Wawa. Wawa means “Wild Goose” in
Ojibway . I know you were
wondering.
I
must say that I was intrigued by the title, “The View From Wawa’s Famous Goose.”
I’m not sure I’d climb especially high to get a look at the Canadian version of
an interstate, especially if I’ve been riding for hours on said road.
Do
Canadians call their interstates “interprovinces?” We’ll have to look up that
one.
Anyway,
the view really isn’t that spectacular, so the goose must be the attraction.
Let’s read the back:
“High
on a hillside at Wawa, Ontario, the huge, 30 foot WAWA GOOSE, built of steel on
a concrete base, stands as a monument to the completion of that section of the
Trans-Canadian Highway No. 17. In the view at the left, the highway, known as
the Lake Superior Circle Route, is seen winding through the valley below.”
Now,
I’m the kind of roadtripper who will stop at just about anything, especially if
I have the Gnome of Victory and Celebration along to pose.
So
on the off chance that I am in Wawa, I would likely pull over to check out a
30-foot steel goose, especially if it is one of the three weeks of the year
when it is not snowing there.
Plus, seeing a Canada goose in Canada is kind of cool.
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| The goose might be gone, but it looks like there are plenty of other things to do in Wawa. |
And,
check out the glowing review left on tripadviser.com: “Bigger than Life: Really a stunning statue. It really is a
majestic bird. The sculpture/artist captured a unique pose of this avian
beauty. There were several other variations of this statue throughout key
locations in Wawa. Each unique by the pose captured.”
Now I’d point out that a “bigger
than life” goose could actually be not all that big. A bigger-than-life goose
could conceivably fit in the trunk of my Civic. But this one does appear to be
really, really big.
Sadly, I might not ever
know – and not because my travels don’t often take me to northern Canada.
I saw the link to the Wawa
goose cam and pounced. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same. This is
why the Internet is an amazing thing.
The goose is … gone. OK,
here’s our mystery. What the heck happened to the goose?
There are different
versions.
The goosecam site reads:
“Wondering
how the goose flew this coop...? A little bird told us that the
structural engineers say that our Goose is cooked! It’s been laying
golden tourism eggs for Wawa for years but now Wawa is on a wild goose chase
for $500,000 needed to re-feather our town. Let’s flock together and fly over
to www.thewawagoose.com. Put a feather in your cap - make a
$50 contribution towards towards a new HONKER!”
Keep in mind, that’s
probably $500,000 Canadian dollars, which means it’s probably like $700,000
American dollars.
Then, the always accurate
Wikipedia tells us “The Wawa Goose has been
temporarily removed for refurbishment after heavy flooding damaged the
sculpture in late 2012.”
Flooding? The sculpture
is 30-feet tall and up on a hill that provides views of the interstate-like
road. That would be a flood of Noah-like proportions!
Then, the official Wawa goose fund-raising site tells
us another story:
“:Unfortunately, our old Goose has announced that he
will be retiring by this Fall. Even though he will be missed, he ‘s told us
that he is tired and his weary knees can’t handle the long standing periods any
longer, not to mention our really cold winters! So it’s official, he needs a
replacement to take over his important job and we need your help to make this
happen!”
They…think…it…talks.
So it looks like we will never know.
We did learn that this is actually the second goose.
The first was made of plaster and chicken wire and lasted three years before
the Canadian winters did him in. He now resides in the safety of a downtown
general store.
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