Itching to See Some Sarcastic Stuffed Gophers? Visit This Museum.
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Among the 50 or so dioramas at this museum in Torrington, Canada, is a scene of a young couple from the 1950s. She wears a turquoise poodle skirt. He is clad in a black leather jacket. They stand, locked in an embrace, beside a motorcycle under the glow of a full moon. They are adorable. And they are gophers.
Gopher Hole Museum, a collection of stuffed Richardson's ground squirrels posed to resemble the townspeople of Torrington, opened in 1996. Located in a former one-room schoolhouse, the museum displays the gophers in wooden boxes with painted walls and props that evoke a particular scene.
There are gophers grilling hot dogs, getting married, fishing, playing Texas Hold 'Em, and eating cotton candy. Some have sardonic speech bubbles attached to their heads. ("Have a nice trip?" cracks a firefighter gopher to a pal lying on the ground.)
Get stuffed: