Our TransCanada Link

The last link of the Lake Superior section of the Trans-Canada Highway was completed here and officially opened to traffic on September 17, 1960. Before the highway opened, people in Wawa traveled by steamboat on Lake Superior until 1941 or by the Algoma Central Railway after 1921. From as early as 1920, Wawa residents were repeatedly promised a road by provincial and federal officials, while communities including Chapleau also pressed to have the highway routed through them. Chapleau businessmen favored a line through their railway town, while Wawa residents pushed for the more scenic route north through Sault Ste. Marie. By 1930 the highway had reached 110 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie to Montreal River. During the Depression, hundreds of men worked on that section one foot at a time for 15 cents a day. During World War II, conscientious objectors helped extend the road to the Agawa River, where construction stopped near the Agawa Promontory, about 80 kilometres from Wawa, because the Gap between Agawa and Wawa was considered too rugged and hard to cross. In 1951, a publicity effort called Operation Michipicoten sought to show the remoteness of Wawa, as four experienced bush travelers followed a 1935 surveyors map from Wawa to Montreal River, reported regularly by portable radio, and completed the overland trip in 17 days. Residents then rallied around slogans such as "A road to the Soo in '52" and "Out of the sticks in '56" as support grew for a road connection. In 1959, a rough 80-kilometre route from Agawa to Wawa was finally cut through rock and forest, but it was so rough that the trip to Sault Ste. Marie took eight hours. In December 1959, the first cars from Wawa made the journey to the Sault, even though there was no bridge across the Old Woman River and travelers had to build a homemade log bridge. The official opening in 1960 brought Premier Frost, Transport Minister Hees, other public officials, and thousands of celebrants to Wawa despite heavy rain.

Ontario · Canada