Another Roadside Attraction

Posted on 07. May, 2008 by Kerry Banks in Travel Blog

Canada. Big country. Big lakes and mountains. Big roadside attractions. I’ll leave it to the sociologists to explain why Canadians feel compelled to construct enormous sculptures of furniture, food, animals and household appliances. But there is no denying our obsession with them. You can find these supersized monuments in every province, along almost every major highway. Some are made from wood, others from steel or aluminum, and some from high-tech graphite and fiberglass. A couple even have their own fan clubs. Hey, if size really matters, then we are leading the pack. Canada can lay claim to the world’s largest dinosaur (the Drumheller T-Rex pictured here), cowboy boot, totem pole, piggy bank, tin soldier, lobster, golf club, baseball bat, oil can, apple, pyrogy, fire hydrant, wind chimes, tree crusher and UFO landing pad. And that’s only a partial list.

There are more than 900 roadside attractions littered across the Canadian landscape, ranging from a 25-metre tall easel holding a reproduction of Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting of sunflowers in Altona, Manitoba, to a giant, red fiddle in Harvey Nova Scoitia, dedicated to internationally renowned fiddler Don Messer. Clearly we can’t cover all of them here, but we can take a closer look at a few of the more interesting examples.

World’s Largest Hockey Stick and Puck, Duncan, B.C.

The puck and stick were built in Penticton from Douglas fir beams. The 62-metre stick weighs in at a whopping 28 kilograms, 40 times the size of a regular hockey stick. Commissioned by the Government of Canada for Expo ‘86 in Vancouver, the puck and stick were later donated to the province of B.C.. After a competition, the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan was chosen from over 30 organizations to display the artifact. Eveleth, Minnesota, once tried to discredit Duncan and claim the title for itself. The muckraking Yanks contended Duncan’s stick was more of a sculpture, and was therefore not eligible for the record. This all became moot in 2001, when Eveleth’s stick was removed for public safety reasons, only to be chopped up into tiny pieces and sold off as souvenirs.

Starship Enterprise, Vulcan, Alberta

“Beam me up, Scotty.” Anyone driving through Vulcan can’t miss spotting the Vulcan Tourism and Trek Station and replica of the Starship Enterprise. Situated at the main entrance to town, this starship model was built and unveiled in 1995, and is based on the original USS enterprise from the Star Trek series. The Tourism and Trek Station, which opened in 1998, looks like something out of a science-fiction fan’s worst peyote hallucination. Each June, the Albertan town hosts Vulcan’s Galaxyfest, a three-day convention featuring Klingon karaoke, a Star Trek fashion show, an Intergalactic Fan Fiction Exhibition and Vulcan Space Adventure, a virtual-reality game that takes players inside a recreation of the bridge of the Enterprise. Just to avoid any confusion, a plaque welcomes visitors in English, Klingon and Vulcan.

Giant Goose, Wawa, Ontario

Wawa in the Ojibway language means “Wild Goose.” Fittingly enough the town has erected a huge Canada Goose monument, the largest of its kind in the country, standing guard over the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 101. The goose was the brainchild of a local businessman as a means of luring travellers off the highway and into town. The original plaster sculpture, which was erected in 1960, could talk. If you pressed a button on the stand it would tell you its history. However, its wire and plaster construction did not stand up to the harsh Northern Ontario climate and it was replaced in 1963 by a more hardy steel statue. The world famous Wawa Goose was immortalized by Stompin’ Tom Connors in his song “Little Wawa.”

Jumbo The Elephant, St. Thomas, Ontario

This statue honours the memory of Jumbo, a six-ton African elephant, born in 1861, that became the star attraction of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. On the night of September 15, 1885, “the Greatest Show on Earth” was playing in St. Thomas, Ontario. The circus’ 29 elephants had completed their routines and all but two had been led from the big top to their waiting railway cars. Only the smallest, Tom Thumb, and the largest, Jumbo, remained to take a final bow. After the completion of the show, as handler Matthew Scott guided Tom Thumb and Jumbo along the tracks, an unscheduled express train hit the beasts. Jumbo was crushed; his skull reportedly broken in over a hundred places. Still conscious and groaning, even with the massive injuries, the mortally wounded elephant was comforted by Scott until it died. In 1985, on the 100th anniversary of Jumbo’s death, the city erected a life-size statue of Jumbo near the Elgin County Pioneer Museum.

World’s Largest Tomahawk, Cut Knife, Saskatchewan

Getting clubbed with a tomahawk this size would certainly leave a lasting impression. It is 16.4 metres long, 12 metres high, weighs 5.5 tonnes, and is cantilevered through the top of a nine-metre-high concrete teepee. The tomahawk handle is an actual fir tree and the ax head is fiberglass. The monument was created in 1971 during Saskatchewan’s “Homecoming” commemoration of Indian treaties signed in 1871, and is meant to symbolize unity and friendship between the area’s populations. The nearby Clayton McLain Memorial Museum features a collection of 11 buildings that display Native and pioneer artifacts dating back to the Riel Rebellion of 1885.

Big Mosquito, Komarno, Manitoba

Buzzzz. Komarno, a village of 125 people located 70 kilometres north of Winnipeg, bills itself as the mosquito capital of Canada, an itchy claim that few other places would want to advertise. In fact, the name Komarno is Ukranian for mosquito-infested. The town’s major tourist draw is this 4.6-metre long mosquito statue. Built in 1984, it revolves on its base, doubling as a weather vane. During the summer, about 15 visitors each day drop by to see it, some from as far away as France. Not to be outdone, the Ontario town of Upsala constructed its own giant mosquito monument in 1991–it depicts a 4.9 metre long mosquito flying away with a terrified man in its clutches. To drive home the message, the mosquito is also holding a knife and fork.

Giant Squid, Glover’s Harbour, Newfoundland

The giant squid is one of earth’s most menacing and elusive creatures. Amazingly, the first photos of a live giant squid were not taken until 2004. Once thought to be a mythical creature, the first substantiated report of one of these denizens of the deep was in 1873. The animal was reported to have been attacking a minister and a young boy, near Bell Island, Newfoundland. Five years later, on November 2, 1878, scientists received their first giant squid specimen, when a carcasse washed ashore in Glover’s Harbour, Newfoundland. The largest squid ever recorded, its body measured 6.1 metres, one of its tentacles extended 10.7 metres and it was estimated to weigh 2.2 tonnes. Guaranteed to terrify young childen, the 16.8-metre concrete replica, which stands just off the main road in Glover’s Harbour, was built in 2001.

Anyone interested in seeing more photos of Canada’s roadside attractions should check out these two websites:

www.roadsideattractions.ca
www.bigthings.ca