The Sundre & District Historical Society is paying homage to the area's wild horse population through the addition of life-sized statues at the Sundre Museum.
One of the two statues is already standing outside of the main reception building at the museum. The other statue will be completed by the end of July, according to Jack Nichol, president of the society.
The two seal brown fibreglass horses will be reared up on their hind legs and facing each other.
Julian Lee, the ice sculptor from Calgary who has attended the museum's annual Winterfest celebration for the past few years, is creating the statues.
Both statues are costing the society roughly $15,000. So far, $7,000 has been raised through local donations.
Nichol said the society plans to pay for the statues in full through local donations, and the society is paying the sculptor as they raise the money.
Nichol believes the wild horse statues add an important part of history to the museum.
“The largest number of wild horses remaining in Alberta are west of Sundre,” said Nichol. “And 2014 is the year of the horse.”
He said horses helped establish Canada.
“We're history. That's what a museum is about. And it adds to the history, and the first people that ever came into this country were the trappers in 1802,” he said.
“And there were horses here at that time. But it was the horse that did everything. Everything was done with horses. They rode them, they packed them, they skidded logs with them. They worked their land with them.”
The society is currently working on other initiatives as well, including having another 90 feet of fence built on the grounds, like the one that was built earlier this year.
A number of murals are also going to be created at the museum.
As well, the society is working on having an expansion built, at a cost of roughly $200,000.
This includes another building for travelling exhibits and a common area for educational classes and a meeting room, but also for more storage space.
The society has spent $50,000 to purchase two lots on the west side of the reception centre, where it would like to build.
“We want to build onto the existing building, so we want to stay the same width and go roughly 40 feet west.”
He encourages people to visit the museum and see what it has to offer.
“We believe we have the best attraction to Sundre. We bring a lot of people to town.”
