Market Friday Gets Stuffed

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Last month, Minime and I travelled to Alberta and took a road trip with GiGi and Great Aunt ViVi. Anyone who has ever spent time in the Prairies, in the summer, is familiar with the ubiquitous prairie dog, otherwise known as the gopher or Richardson Ground Squirrel. My aunt suggested we check out the Gopher Hole Museum in the Badlands of Alberta.

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The World Famous ... they have a map with thumb tacks to prove it ... Gopher Hole Museum resides in Torrington, Alberta, just a little over an hour drive north of Calgary.

The drive is a scenic one, with rolling hills and wide open skies. I promise too. You will see more than one prairie dog in the wild.

They are literally everywhere, tearing up fields and eating farmer's yields. Flat as a pancake as road kill and in the beak of a hawk.

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Well, get ready to see the sometimes cute, sometimes pesky rodent in still life, stuffed and anthropomorphic.

Admission two the one school-room size exhibit is by donation and well-worth it. The Gopher Hole museum is small, 47 dioramas, but if you are a lover of kitsch and oddities, and in the neighbourhood, you can't miss the opportunity to visit.

I mean ... the bragging rights alone. Right.

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You will find pretty gophers, gophers getting married, driving a stage coach, fishing, and hunting. Greaser gophers even. "Look at me. I am SANDY Dee."

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The curators were excited to talk about the process and the history of the museum and town. The creation of the exhibits were really a community affair, involving not just taxidermists, but seamstress, and painters, and probably the plundering of old Barbie clothes and accessories. There was probably enough helpful, neighbourly input to drive any curmudgeon prairie dog mad.

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So if you are ever in Southern Alberta, perhaps on your way to Edmonton or Drumhellar from Calgary, make sure to stop by the Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, and check out these gophers living their best afterlife.

As always a shoutout to the beautiful Hive account@dswigle, the gracious host of #marketfriday. Be over there shortly to post in the comments and check out the market friday work of others.