One of the most unique places in our area to visit is the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington.
This facility showcases a rodent that is known to many in rural areas, the gopher or prairie dog, in different and unique scenes that you will only find there. The museum continues to be a popular destination in East Central Alberta but the buildings that the museum is housed in have seen better days. According to Laural Kurta Director of the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum, the buildings are near the end of their lifespan. “Our buildings are two heritage buildings. One is a one room school house. It is about 120 years old at this point. The other is one of the grain elevator offices, which is about 80 years old or so. The museum itself was only meant to be a 5 year project to help local business. Torrington used to be very busy before they pulled out the railway line, after that businesses started to close. The buildings are actually laid on railway ties so those ties over time have degraded. The building is twisting, we have wood rot, there are all sorts of issues. We were supposed to open this Friday (May 16), instead we will be opening Monday (May 19), after we have an exterminator come in as maple bugs are wintering in the south wall. They are becoming quite a problem where we can’t keep up with them anymore.”
This five year project has gone far beyond the expectations of everyone involved according to Kurta. “This will be its 30th year open and we are really proud of that. To be honest, the people developed it, created it, and have been on the board for a very long time, never really saw it going long. They didn’t probably take the precautions or efforts they needed to make sure that the buildings would be safer for longer. A new building needed to be sourced probably two decades ago.”
Unfortunately, there are not many vacant buildings available for the museum to move into within Torrington. “There is nothing for us. There are some peoples private homes for sale and those, of course, are not zoned commercial. We actually had a building gifted to us last summer but the County (Kneehill County) told me they have us zoned residential, not commercial. I’ve been fighting this uphill battle getting us rezoned for several months now, and we lost the building in the process. This building had to be moved by June of last year and now we are back to square one.”
The museum is moving forward trying to secure a new building and Kurta shares that due to minimal access to funding, they have went to crowdfunding to raise the funds for a new home. “This has always been the ‘peoples museum’. We don’t have government funding. We also are not a charity, so we are not eligible for donations for businesses and people like to make to get a tax write-off. We are in a tight situation so we launched a crowdfunder. We have been able to stay open for 30 years solely on the generosity of the people that walk through our doors.” Kurta is hopeful that there are some businesses in the region that are looking for a unique sponsorship opportunity with the museum. “This little tiny place is an impossible idea that, against all odds, has not only survived but thrived.”
The museum is an important place in the community of just over 300 people. If you would like to support their search for a new building, support the crowdfunding through this link. Also if you have a building that may work for them, reach out to the museum by phone 403-586-5341, or visit their website.
Comments