World Famous Gopher Hole Museum

We are the Gophers of Torrington! The World Famous Gopher Hole Museum features anthropomorphic taxidermy of Richardson's Ground Squirrels (commonly known as gophers) that represent small town Canada, small town Alberta, in a distinctly Torrington way. Meant to be a five year project, the museum was opened in 1996 to support local businesses. Thirty years later (2026) many of those businesses are long gone but we are busier than ever! We host people from all over the globe and have even had guests from the arctic research station. Our map does not depict all the people who have been here…just all the places they have come from. They really come from all over the world! Some mock us calling ourselves ‘world famous’, but truth is stranger than fiction. We have been featured in Reader’s Digest, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, National Geographic, The New York Times, CBC’s Heartland, feature film Alberta Number One, and more. The museum has even found itself on the cover of some university textbooks. In 2025 CBC ran a “Top 10 Canada Staycation” poll. We were the ONLY Alberta location to be mentioned (we got honorable mention). No dinosaurs. No Rockies. Gophers in bikinis!!

Visit our gopherholemuseum.ca website!

By appointment email go4museum@gmail.com or call 403-586-5341