Forgotten towns: Wawa & Goslingville
On this 1910 map of Florida, several towns appear that have since vanished. Some communities disappeared after losing their railroad depot or post office as settlement shifted elsewhere, while others simply adopted new names. One especially intriguing stop is labeled "Wawa Station (Goslingville P.O.)."
According to local legend, Wawa was the name of the small peninsula extending into the St. Lucie River from its north bank. The name is thought to derive from the Ojibwe word wawa, meaning "wild goose" or "snow goose."
George Gosling homesteaded the area in the 1880s, planting pineapple fields before spending years traveling as a salesman. The Goslingville Post Office opened on August 22, 1898, with Mary J. DeSteuben serving as its first postmaster. It closed in 1905, and mail service was transferred to Rio. Gosling platted the town in 1903 and built a home in 1907, but by the mid-1910s he and his family had relocated to California, leaving Goslingville to fade into history.
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