A Stuffed Spectacle: The Torrington Gopher Museum
For every picture perfect lake or dramatic mountain range there is in Alberta, there’s an equally quirky tourist attraction. Whether it’s a 42 foot tall kielbasa sausage in Mundare, the world’s first UFO landing pad in St. Paul, or a 5,000 pound Ukranian easter egg in Vergreville – Alberta’s the place to be, if it’s wacky attractions you’re after.
Usually lurking in one of the province’s many small towns, these unusual landmarks are as much a part of prairie life, as the methodically grazing cows, see-sawing oil pumps or endless bales of yellow hay.
-
- A typical prairie scene
-
- Clem, the gopher
-
- Visitors from all over the world
TORRINGTON, ALBERTA
Torrington, Alberta is like most other prairie towns. There’s a lot of space, RVs parked in driveways, not much industry and a scarily shrinking population.
Frankly, there’s no real reason to visit. But people do. Since 1996, they’ve descended on placid little Torrington with a single purpose – to visit the World Famous Torrington Gopher Museum.
There, the star attractions are a bunch of small, furry burrowing rodents that have been stuffed and arranged in a collection of seriously creative dioramas. The taxidermic gophers participate in the Olympics, “stuff” themselves at diners (hardy har), and menacingly rob banks. Put your paws up!!
*Click each photo for a closer look.
-
- Torrington Gopher Museum
-
- Put your paws up!
-
- Gopher Olympics
-
- Tourists
It’s not just witty puns and furry friends at the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum though. It’s attracted the ire of PETA, corresponding controversy and of course, media coverage. The gophers don’t seem to mind the dispute though – the articles are proudly displayed in a binder, and the GAGS (Gophers Against Getting Stuffed) have their very own diorama inside the museum. 😉
-
- G.A.G.S
-
- PETA Controversy
-
- No one here but us gophers
HOW TO GO TO THE TORRINGTON GOPHER MUSEUM
The museum is located at 208 1 Street South in Torrington, Alberta, Canada.
From Calgary, take Deerfoot Trail (Alberta Highway 2) north until you reach exit 340A. Make a right, and look out for the signs to Torrington.
Admission is $2.
Take a walk around town and look for the fire hydrants dressed up like gophers. It won’t take long…the town is only about 3 blocks long.
Make sure you take some photos dressed up as Clem, the gopher! 😉
What do you think? Is the museum hilarious or heinous? Would you visit?
Laural Kerfuffle
Hey there…I am the acting director of the museum. I do searches on the regular and thought I could help you with some of your questions. Torrington used to be a busy community full of businesses and activities. In 1991, the CPR decommissioned the railway thus devastating this town and hundreds of others across the country. The school started chopping grades, and businesses started to shutter their doors. The town needed some way to bring people into the community to support the remaining businesses. After brainstorming for three meetings, nothing of value materialized. As they were getting ready to throw in the towel, one lady, just being cheeky, said, “Why don’t we stuff gophers? We got enough of them!!” Everyone laughed…then they stopped laughing and that is exactly what they did. the museum was meant to be a four year project to help local business. Few businesses still exist but the museum is just wrapping up its 28th season. Who knew? We no longer do admission by donation, however, no one can pay their bills on $2, but we do operate by donation and that has improved our bottom line.
shelley
Hi Laura, nice to hear from you! I loved visiting your museum, and thought is was such a unique way to deal with a very real issue affecting the Prairies. What is your admission policy now? I’ll update the guide with the current info.
thegrownupgapyear
Sounds like one of the strangest museums ever – and I thought we’d seen some weird ones on Route 66 in the US!
Shelley @Travel-Stained
I felt like it was the kind of thing you could only see in that part of the world, so I definitely wanted to stop in and check it out. It was definitely weird! Haha, you must have seen strange stuff on Route 66 for sure…wanna get there myself, one day to explore. 🙂
Justine of The Travel Lush
This might be the strangest museum I’ve ever seen! The stuffed gophers are so creepy!!
Shelley @Travel-Stained
Seriously, I wonder who came up with the idea for this museum? It wouldn’t really be my first thought when thinking about what to do with the gophers! 😉
CanadianTravelBugs
Sounds like a fun place, but maybe at a few furry creatures expense. But they are a pest and who wants to be over run by gophers! Sorry I missed it my last trip out west 😉
Shelley @Travel-Stained
Lol. I think if you’ve never lived in the prairies, it’s hard to understand what a pest they can actually be. The whole PETA thing majorly backfired though… all they managed to do was give the museum free advertising!!! 😉
CanadianTravelBugs
I haven’t lived out west, but heard from those who do they can be a major pain. Reminds me of the Caddy Shack movie with the gophers and Bill Murray on the golf course 😉
Hello, Scarlett Blog
Great prairie post! I often write about them myself. 🙂
Emory
http://helloscarlettblog.com/2014/10/06/j-j-editing-photographs/
Shelley @Travel-Stained
Hey Emory…. yeah, the prairies definitely have a lot of unique stories, and they’re just so beautiful to photograph. 🙂
rommel
The rodents are so awesome. I love the Olympics theme one.
rommel
This reminded me of the Bunny Museum … HA! 😀
Shelley @Travel-Stained
OMG! Rommel, why do you have to keep reminding me of that Bunny Museum!!! I just got that nightmare outta my head!! 😉 BTW, have you seen the Atlas Obscura website? You can search weird sites by location…. check it out: http://www.atlasobscura.com. I think you’d love it! 🙂
Sha
Interesting indeed…they do remind me of Peter Rabbit though…haha…:)
Shelley @Travel-Stained
Lol…we had a pretty good laugh there, especially when she offered us the gopher head to wear and walk around town with!! Hahaha 😀
Sha
Hahaha! That’s a winner…don’t think I would want to wear something like that though. ..lol…?
Shelley @Travel-Stained
It was surprisingly heavy, and kinda smelly, but well, we couldn’t resist!! 😀