The pictures speak for themselves.
Yes, they are/were real gophers.
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I don’t think I’ll ever forget that, no matter how hard I try. The speech balloons really add something.
It appears to be the life work of a truly disturbed person.
Please tell me those aren’t real dead stuffed gophers.
ETA: That’s what I get for not reading the OP.
And…
BLECH!!!
We keep meaning to go there. Maybe this summer.
Oh, and the only good gopher is a dead gopher. Little bastards. (You can take the girl out of Saskatchewan…
)
They look pretty odd to our modern eyes, but in ye olden days that sort of taxidermy was fairly common. Here’s some squirrels made by my great great grandfather.
Take me too!
And the only thing better then a dead gopher is two dead gophers.
What’s funnier than a dead gopher?
A dead gopher in a clown suit
That…well, that’s a guy who really likes to humilate dead rodents. 
And apparently, it is located in yet another Torrington. (I live in one myself. :))
The fighting squirrels are cool Tapioca Dextrin!
The taxidermy work appears to have been done by a dude named Ken, and Hazel is the lady who does the rest.
(At least, according to the Hazel’s poem in pic 2)
Superfreaknduper, They had a circus scene with a dead gopher in a clown suit. I must have missed that pic.
featherlou, that’s about the only thing to see in Torrington. The museum is the highlight of the village. My double garage is bigger. It’s not exactly the Royal Terrell. You may want to reconsider your visit and save the two buck entry fee, plus gas.
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Those pictures are most excellent. Thanks for sharing. (And thanks to TD for sharing as well!)
Those are gophers? They look like Prairie Dogs.
I got a shudder when I thought about the taxidermy…I hope they don’t have an XXX rated area in “the back” for an extra dollar! :eek:
T’wernt no Gopher Baroque. That’s a disappointment.
Here’s an old press clipping from 1999, with some background.
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Good heavens, they got a government grant to build the museum? That’s positively brilliant! Government-funded craziness, what a wonderful idea!
Got to love those crazy PETA folks. from the clipping
I love it!
Every gopher is sacred, every gopher is great. I’ll tell you one thing; farmers on the prairies would gladly shoot members of Peta along with the gophers.
Phlosphr - they look like Richardson’s Ground Squirrels to me. 
Some of those backgrounds were really nice. The fishing and hunting ones were my favorites.
But, yeah, those people are nuts.
Maybe I’m just easily amused, but I think that’s awesome. Everybody needs a hobby.
But you’re a furry…Doesn’t taxidermy bother you on some level? Killing some animal and making it spend its afterlife in a cutesy pose?