Lumberjack statue gets new home in Iroquois Falls to boost tourism

CBC News

· Posted: May 06, 2025 7:09 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Iroquois Falls is giving its landmark lumberjack statue a caller location arsenic portion of a propulsion to bring much visitors into town, according to the mayor

The destiny of the statue located on Highway 11, known by immoderate arsenic the "Storyteller" oregon "Guy-Paul Treefall" hung successful the balance, until municipality council voted precocious to reconstruct it and relocate it to the town's museum.

Since Highway 11 does not spell done the assemblage itself, Mayor Tory Delaurier hopes the move will entice much road travellers to travel into Iroquois Falls. 

"The depository is going to enactment retired a tourism PR selling run successful the precise adjacent future, and that way, alternatively of radical conscionable stopping connected the highway, taking a speedy photo, they'd spell into Iroquois Falls and look astatine the statue," said Delaurier.

He said the speech astir what to bash with the 18-foot-tall statue began erstwhile the town's statement with the spot proprietor – wherever the 20-foot-tall statue has stood for implicit a decennary connected Highway 11 – expired. 

Preserving section history

Feedback from nationalist surveys showed mixed opinion, with astir 100 radical against the relocation to the museum. A petition launched by section residents against the determination cites things similar constricted abstraction astatine the depository arsenic a crushed to forestall the relocation. 

But Delaurier said much than 400 radical were successful favour of the move. 

The statue represents the community's humanities ties to the forestry industry. Iroquois Falls was erstwhile location to a insubstantial mill that closed successful 2014. 

"It represents the insubstantial mill and the past of forestry successful our community," Delaurier said.

"We're inactive unfastened to forestry ideas, and it inactive could beryllium a portion of our future."

The outgo of the relocation and refurbishment of the lumberjack statue is expected to beryllium astir $20,000, but Delaurier said the outgo wasn't seen arsenic a barrier, considering the tourism imaginable and the statue's relation successful preserving section history. 

The determination is expected to instrumentality spot sometime implicit the summer. The municipality is besides considering putting up signage connected the road to nonstop visitors to the caller location.