Gopher Hole Museum

[jamesq]

We (thebrucie and I) were driving back from Edmonton when we passed a sign for the Torrington Gopher Hole Musuem. The sign advised us that the turn off to see the museum was coming up and that Torrington was only 30 KM west of highway 2.

I said to Bruce that the sign was utterly unnecessary:

1) No one is going to spur-of-the-moment decide to get off a major highway to check out a gopher hole museum.
2) Hell, Torrington is so far from civilization that no one is even going to plan a trip to see the museum.
3) At best, this museum supports itself from families that are trapped in Torrington and have nothing else to do.

"We have a couple of hours until the car is fixed - want to check out the gopher hole museum?"
"Yeah what the hell - bar doesn't open until 5"

The my speculations got weird.

What if it wasn't gopher holes but little stuffed gopher carcasses that had been taxidermied up to look like adorable farmer couples and pioneers and stuff? Turns out that's exactly what the museum consists of.

I wondered how something like that gets started. Does the town just up and decide to make something super cheesy to try and get some tourist dollars? Do they just cash in on something they already have?

"Twitchy Old Frank didn't leave no next-of-kin so that means his house and its contents become town property."
"Contents? You mean all those stuffed gophers he made? Did you know that there was a gopher for every person in town - he even had a model of the town"
"What bothers me more is what he had them damned gophers doing to each other."
"What about that suggestion that we make a tourist attraction out of them?"
"Yeah we can do that - after we clean up the display of course."

Yeah, small towns have always creeped me out.

Comments

[wendy-licious.livejournal.com]

I've heard of this place. I've always wanted to go...

[jamesq]

OMG, the gophers are taking over!

[gifted-spirit.livejournal.com]

that's it! One spring Road Trip. We can start callin them " Bizzarre places you would never go unless drunk" trips... and we must all go in groups so that if we need to we can share the pain!

[wee-megan.livejournal.com]

Sadly, when I was living in Olds and a couple of my friends were bored (go figure....too cold to go cow tipping) so we decided to go check it out.....dood....fucking creepy....I will never get that piece of my life back....

and...

[nosarious.livejournal.com]

And share the driving. At least two designated drivers, so one can stop drinking on the way back and let the other have a go.

Actually, a road trip like this would be interesting for a bunch of people in the summer... make it so, number one.

[bungle-lord.livejournal.com]

Those are not really gophers.

They are transmogrified humans . . . .