'Thank you for 30 great years': Alberta's iconic Gopher Hole Museum closed until further notice
Alberta’s beloved World Famous Gopher Hole Museum has announced it is closing until further notice.
In a post on the museum’s social media page, the team thanked visitors for 30 great years, adding that it will remain closed while it looks for a new home.
“That’s all folks! Thank you for 30 great years,” the museum’s post reads.
“The World Famous Gopher Hole Museum is now closed until further notice while we try to figure out a new burrow.”
Located in the small hamlet of Torrington, east of Olds, the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum has become a beloved stop for road trippers, drawing in visitors from all over Alberta and beyond with its cheeky displays of taxidermied gophers dressed up and posed in miniature scenes.
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The quirky museum has become a bucket-list experience for visitors from all over. Created and run entirely by volunteers, it has been featured by CBC, AMA Travel, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Atlas Obscura, and even in university textbooks, the museum says.
World Famous Gopher Hole Museum/Facebook
Daily Hive spoke with the museum director, Laural Kurta, in April, when there were already concerns that it would not open for the 2026 season. At the time, the museum’s current buildings had reached the end of their lifespan, leaving organizers without a reliable space to operate.
“The buildings are shot. They’re really not good for our purposes anymore,” Kurta told Daily Hive.
“The museum’s more popular than ever, but the buildings have had it, and unfortunately, the board never bothered to go ahead and plan for the future, so it left us in a really tight timeline.”
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Originally intended to last just five years, the buildings have now been used for roughly three decades. The museum is made up of two historic buildings, a former schoolhouse and grain elevator office, joined by a small hallway.
The museum has operated on a by-donation basis throughout its history.
“Aside from the small provincial startup grant that aided in our creation, this museum has been entirely self-sufficient, bringing in just enough revenue to open the doors to visitors each summer,” the museum said.
While the closure is a blow for fans of the attraction, the museum says this isn’t a goodbye, but rather a “see you later.”
Those who want to help the museum find a new home can donate to its fundraising campaign through its website. As of Oct. 6, $13,330 of its $200,000 fundraising goal had been raised.
With files from Kendall Collins.