Torrington Gopher Hole Museum

A quirky Alberta roadside attraction that has delighted travelers for decades with its stuffed rodents in tiny costumes is closed until further notice.

The world-famous Gopher Hole Museum.

This is Dinner for Schmucks.

It's exactly what it is.

Okay, well, Dave, parting shot.

Cultural disaster in Alberta this week, Derek, with the closing of the Torrington Gopher Museum.

Let's put that up on the screen.

This is a cultural gem of Alberta.

A

world-famous Torrington Gopher Museum has made news all over the world over the years and sadly has been forced to shut its doors.

I'm basing this on absolutely nothing.

This is not solid journalism, but it's just cynical suspicions for me.

Horrible news on one of Alberta's greatest cultural institutions, Corey.

The Torrington Gopher Museum has shut down.

I was bummed.

I posted that.

There, I'm going to segue that into another thing.

Like I said, with Alberta, I'm still bummed about it.

And Dave had to, because I didn't get off my butt and go visit it, that Torrington Gopher Museum in a small town in Alberta, for those unfamiliar with it.

I'm just segueing in and how being, using your local resources and being efficient.

Yeah.

Uh, we're gonna talk about the Gopher Museum.

There's an issue with that.

If you don't know what a gopher museum is, well, we're gonna blow your minds on the show today.

Just staying with the vote thing for a second.

Uh-huh.

As they gaze into each other's eyes, you can feel the love, an expression of devotion that will never change because they are taxidermied gophers.

It's one of many scenes at the world-famous Gopher Hole Museum, a roadside attraction in Torrington, Alberta.

It's full of anthropomorphic rodents in carefully curated scenes, although the curtain may be falling on those scenes.

After a years-long battle to stay open, the museum was recently forced to close its doors, and that closure could be permanent unless they find a new place to set up shop.

Laurel Kurta is the director of the world-famous Gopher Hole Museum.

We reached her in Olds, Alberta.

Laurel, it's been about a week now since things officially shut down.

Laurel, thank you for this.

In a little town called Torrington,

we visited the Gopher Hole Museum.

The Gopher Hole Museum.

The GoHomie.

The GoHomie.

But this is an attraction.

Like the town, there's almost no town.

Why is it called the Gopher Hole Museum?