Alberta’s stuffed gopher museum popping up in Calgary as it searches for permanent home

Torrington's World Famous Gopher Hole Museum will have an interactive exhibit called "Into the Gopher-Verse" at this year's Calgary Comic Expo.

Alberta’s World Famous Gopher Hole Museum still hasn’t found a place to call home, but its director says the team is making the most of pop-up exhibits while it fights to stay open for the 2026 season.

The world-famous museum, originally based in Torrington, Alta., is coming to Calgary’s Comic Expo from April 23 to 26 with a feature exhibit entitled Into the Gopher-Verse.

It will feature your favourite anthropomorphic taxidermied gophers dressed as characters from franchises like Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek.

“It was something I inquired about, and they were very excited about it … there’s a lot of work, because we weren’t anticipating it for this year,” said director Laural Kurta.

Kurta, somewhat begrudgingly, took the museum over five years ago. Since then, she’s grown to love the quirky attraction for what it is – and even came up with the touring exhibits idea herself.

Which means, after being displaced from its first home by a wasp and maple bug problem, the museum is now in talks with multiple venues for ways to keep the stuffed rodent display alive.

“It’s a big process … we’re shooting now for summer, to have a building,” she said.

“(But) we’re not sure when we’re opening, where we’re opening or if we’re opening.”

The team has so far approached the Torrington arena and community hall, but must jump through county approval as well as financial hurdles before being able to lock down a permanent place.

In the meantime, Kurta says they’re grateful for the pop-up opportunities – and community donations – that have come their way.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum