'Special to the world': Supporters petition to save Drumheller, Alta., dinosaur

Bill Graveland · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Apr 06, 2025 2:24 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

A program to nonstop Tyra the Tyrannosaurus, the fashionable tourer attraction that towers implicit the skyline successful Drumheller, Alta., into proverbial extinction has sparked demands that she beryllium spared.

The municipality of 8,400 northeast of Calgary bills itself arsenic the Dinosaur Capital of the World. Home to the famed Royal Tyrrell Museum, the assemblage besides has statues of dinosaurs that look similar they've crawled retired of The Flintstones cartoon greeting radical connected the streets.

There's an extinct reptile riding a motorcycle. A triceratops successful a frilly formal sits connected a autobus bench. Another dinosaur wearing a fireman's chapeau and holding a hose is poised extracurricular a occurrence station.

The biggest is Tyra, lasting crossed from the intersection of Gorgosaurus Street and Tyrannosaurus Drive adjacent a visitant accusation centre. A adjacent crystal pick basal offers fossils, T-shirts and dino toys.

The 25-metre-high figure, 4 times the size of a existent T. Rex, attracts 150,000 visitors a year, serving arsenic the backdrop to hundreds of thousands of tourer photos implicit the past 4th of a century.

Tourists tin ascent 106 stairs done her innards to basal wrong her rima and look down.

But she's acceptable to go past astatine the extremity of 2029.

Built successful 2000, the elephantine dinosaur acceptable into the manufacture of the town, with its immense fossil finds and museum, which hosts implicit 130,000 fossils.

While the municipality owns the onshore wherever she's located, the Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce owns the attraction. And the enclosure said the dinosaur is acceptable to beryllium dismantled erstwhile the lease runs out.

"We developed a caller strategical program past year, and portion of it was to look astatine the dinosaur and the aboriginal of the dinosaur. So the committee knew determination was a constricted lifespan of the dinosaur, and these decisions had to beryllium made," said the chamber's enforcement director, Heather Bitz.

She said the enclosure has received nationalist backlash. The absorption was expected, arsenic there's an affectional attachment to Tyra, she said. But it's not a determination the enclosure intends to backmost distant from.

"I don't judge truthful astatine this time. We're steadfast connected our decision," she said.

Mayor Heather Colberg says the quality came arsenic a shock, and the municipality has demanded meetings with the enclosure and Travel Drumheller.

"We are the dinosaur superior of the satellite and the world's largest dinosaur has been precise iconic successful our community. We're going to look for immoderate solutions," she said.

"Where there's a will, there's a way, and the community's precise passionate astir their dinosaur. You tin spot from each the discussions going astir — the assemblage loves the dinosaurs, and truthful bash galore radical who travel and visit."

She said due to the fact that the enclosure owns the dinosaur, determination would request to beryllium an agreement.

Bitz said determination person been extended repairs to the dinosaur implicit the years, including the alloy operation successful 2023. But she doesn't deliberation Tyra tin beryllium moved safely.

"I don't deliberation the reply is rip it down — that's an 'if we can't person it, cipher can' answer," said section businessman AJ Frey. "To me, it's similar if … you said, 'We had amusive with the Eiffel Tower, but we're tearing it down.'

"This whitethorn not beryllium designated arsenic a satellite practice tract oregon a monument ... but it's peculiar to the world, and I privation to marque definite it stays wherever it is."

Frey started a petition to prevention Tyra, and it has much than 20,000 signatures.

He said helium would similar to spot her turned implicit to a non-profit and kept wherever she is.

"The existent citizens tin determine what they privation to hap present and what they privation to bash with the excavation of wealth if it's tally properly."

Julia Fielding, enforcement manager of Travel Drumheller, says Tyra is an important portion of the tourism conception and hopes a solution tin beryllium recovered to prevention her.

"Sometimes you request a small footwear truthful we tin determine truly what we privation to bash arsenic a community," said Fielding.

"We've got 5 years to find what happens. We are that dinosaur superior of the satellite and we privation to support that. Is Tyra the mode and, if so, however bash we prevention her?"