There is lingering mourning and a touch of anxiety in the hamlet of Torrington as they await the official word whether the community's beloved mascot, Clem T. Go-Fur, will ever again stand tall and proud to welcome tourists.
There is lingering mourning and a touch of anxiety in the hamlet of Torrington as they await the official word whether the community's beloved mascot, Clem T. Go-Fur, will ever again stand tall and proud to welcome tourists.
Clem, the cartoonish overall-clad four-metre tall statue that was created in 1991 when Torrington was still a village, has been out of service since last fall when residents discovered it had fallen off his pedestal at his well known west end campground spot in the community of just over 170 citizens.
The past year has been a time of indignity for Clem, with having his famous hat stolen twice, and then falling off his pedestal hard to the ground.
"I was very disappointed. It means a lot to tourism and to the community," said Dianne Kurta, director of Torrington's "World Famous" Gopher Hole Museum, which has generated huge national and international controversy over the years, particularly with animal rights groups, with its gopher-themed tourism model.
"We were looking for something different to attract people in our town and they knew the museum was the way to go so they decided to stuff gophers and make a museum out of stuffed gophers and it has done its job," she said, adding the museum is now in its 19th year and attracting an average of 7,000 to 8,000 tourists a year.
The village's decision to create Clem at a cost of $16,000 led to all 11 local fire hydrants being painted with cartoonish gopher characters. In 1996, the Gopher Hole Museum opened, featuring taxidermied gophers (actually Richardson's ground squirrels) dressed in costumes and placed in dioramas. But it's Clem that garnered the most fame. But today he is broken.
"That is terrible. There are great people there, " said 81-year-old Peter Soehn, a retired Kelowna B.C. cartoonist who designed and built several community monuments over the last several decades, including Clem. "They can fix it. It was all fibreglass so it's easy. When you put these together with fibreglass it is pretty permanent."
And Clem is being restored to his full glory, said Al Hoggan, chief administrative officer for Kneehill County.
"We have Clem in the public works shop and as time permits we are slowly rebuilding him," said Hoggan, adding both vandalism and "inherent design flaws" caused Clem's unfortunate current condition.
He said the design flaws allowed water to get inside the statue from the top, ultimately causing rusting to the interior metal pipe that fixed the statue into the concrete base.
The pipe finally corroded to the point where it broke and the fibreglassed statue fell over and onto the ground, said Hoggan.
"We originally thought it was due to vandalism but in actual fact we think now it was more than likely the standpipe, which it was mounted to, corroded and rusted. And either in a good wind or somebody pushing Clem, it fell over from age and the original design," he said.
The county originally intended on having Clem back at his familiar spot by spring but the past extreme winter weather delayed the necessary work planned for the Torrington icon, he said.
"I don't know how much work got done to him but we would certainly like to get him out back and standing as soon as possible, said Hoggan, adding they will also find Clem a new hat.
In the meantime, Kurta said if Clem does come back this summer a celebration to honour his return will be seriously considered by the community.
"I really would like to because there has been a lot of people who have come to the museum and had their picture taken taken with Clem," said Kurta. "And people do come back and they say, 'Where's Clem?' That is one of the main things they look forward to because he stood right at the corner of Torrington and he is so noticeable when he is there."
