Husky the Muskie

When the restoration of Kenora’s Husky the Muskie statue was revealed on June 22, some people thought it was less than fin-tastic. The 12-metre-tall local icon received a new paint job this spring, with funding from the federal government through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation. Many people have taken to Facebook to voice their opinions.

“Put it back to the way it was,” said Sandra Alin-Willis, a Kenora local who says she isn’t fond of the statue’s new look. “It’s not our Husky the Muskie.”

Kristen Boucha, another resident of Kenora, says she wasn’t concerned when this update was first announced and agreed that the fish was in need of a touch-up. But, when the statue was unveiled, Boucha was surprised to see how much it had changed. “I don’t think anybody was expecting to have one fish covered up with the tarp and have it unveiled to be a completely different fish,” she says.

Boucha would like to see the statue changed. “Maybe kind of bring it back a little bit to what it used to be, or try and blend the two together to find a happy medium,” she says. Though, she doesn’t think a change is likely, given the amount of money that was spent on the project, and the fact that it was financed from a heritage fund.

Alin-Willis says the statue is dear to many in Kenora, having been around for so long. “A lot of people get their graduation and wedding pictures down there,” she says. “It was the first big thing they ever put up in Kenora, and the tourists love it.”

Bronson Carver, a local journalist for the Kenora Miner and News, wrote an opinion piece on the statue’s unveiling in late June. Carver says he thinks there are more pressing issues for the community to worry about than Husky the Muskie’s paint job, but he says he understands why the community reacted so strongly to the change.

“He was supposed to be a symbol of keeping the lake clean, taking care of the water, and obviously fishing,” Carver said in an interview, noting that the city of Kenora has deep historical and contemporary ties to fishing. “I think if anything else had a divisive paint job, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. You couldn’t find something that has more potential to be divisive than Husky the Muskie because people care about fishing.”

We put a call out in a Facebook group to see how people were feeling, and this is the response we received.

Some took issue with the fact that the renovation was not done by a local company or artist. The restoration was done by Alberta-based Dinosaur Valley Studios. “They definitely should have hired a local artist, they really had an opportunity to bring the community together, make it fun and include us,” wrote Suzanna Mary Alcock.

Both the city and the studio did not offer comment on this issue, but in a press release from the City of Kenora, the company’s president Frank Hadfield said: “After extensive research on the real fish, it was decided by our artists and designers to blend characteristics of the several sub-species of muskellunge, with a focus on the tiger muskie.”

“I personally don’t like it…but that’s my opinion…l think it looks too cartoonish,” wrote Annie Augustine.

“More a tiger muskie now, they should have kept the natural look of muskies from our area,” wrote Terrence Kozak.

The studio also decided to give the muskie a brighter look to make it stand out from the surrounding area. “We also noted that the original colour blended in with the surrounding foliage so well, that it was difficult to notice Husky when driving by. We decided to lighten his background colour, so that he stood out from the trees a bit more,” Hadfield said in the press statement.

An oversized Easter egg, coins as big as houses, the world’s largest T.rex; Canadian towns and cities have their fair share of unique roadside attractions, and Kenora, Ont. is one of them.

At 12-metres tall, Kenora’s Husky the Muskie is the largest fish statue in Canada, however, the world title belongs to Wisconsin’s 12-metre-tall and 43-metre-long fibreglass muskie. Kenora’s homage to the fish has stood at the west end of the city in McLeod Park since it was unveiled on July 1, 1967, delighting tourists and serving as a photo-op for 55 years.

But over time, the statue has eroded. That’s why the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources, and Forestry announced on March 11 that through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), it would provide the City of Kenora with $493,077 to restore Husky the Muskie to its former glory and refurbish McLeod Park with upgrades and new attractions, including a playground, picnic area, fishing pier, and amphitheatre.

“Today’s announcement boosts regional employment, attracts more visitors, and reignites Kenora’s sense of community and pride of place while ensuring Husky the Muskie remains a beloved mascot, tourist attraction, and ambassador for preventing water pollution,” said Lisa MacLeod, Ontario Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism, and Culture Industries in a press release.

As MacLeod mentioned, Husky the Muskie has long been tied to Kenora’s identity. The city constructed the statue, in part, to celebrate Canada’s centennial, but also to draw in tourists. In 1949, the federal government passed the Trans Canada Highway Act, determined to connect the country from coast-to-coast. Prior to this, large swaths of Canada weren’t connected by road.

In 1962, the Canadian government completed the project, allowing people to drive from British Columbia to the Maritimes uninterrupted. This meant there were a lot more people driving through local towns and cities. To take advantage of the tourism boom, local governments scrambled to erect giant statues and attractions designed to draw visitors in and explore the local businesses.

As it happens, one of the highways—Highway 17, to be exact—ran right through Kenora, and the city wanted a slice of the action. Giant geese, life-sized mammoths, even an exaggerated lawnmower, were popping up in cities around Kenora. To stay competitive, the city’s chamber of commerce started discussions about building their own roadside attraction in 1963.

Chaired by Marc Marcino, the committee settled on a statue of a muskie. “The Muskie is considered a prize fish. It’s been called the fish of 10,000 casts because it’s a challenge to catch them,” explained Lori Nelson, director of The Muse, a museum and art gallery devoted to the Lake of the Woods. “[Marc’s] thinking was that he considered Kenora a prize town, so how better to represent it than with a prize fish.”

The committee raised $5,000 in donations and commissioned Bob Selway and Jules Horvath of Deluxe Signs and Displays to construct the statue. At one time, there were thoughts of having the statue emerge from the waters of Kenora Bay, but this idea was scrapped.

The statue was composed of a steel beam with a plywood shell, covered with wire mesh. Over the wire mesh was a malleable foam that helped give the muskie its shape. Finally, the structure was encased in multiple layers of tinted fibreglass, Nelson says.

Before the unveiling, the Chamber of Commerce solicited the public for a name. In response, they received everything from Leaping Lizzie to Peter the Pike to Moe. Bill Brabrooke submitted the winning suggestion with the slogan: “Husky the Muskie says Prevent Water Pollution.”

The statue was a hit, establishing Kenora as a must-stop on the tourist roadmap. “Every person travelling by car across Canada must pass our symbol,” Marcino was quoted as saying.

Husky the Muskie has remained a key piece in Kenora’s tourism strategy. In 1995, Ross Kehl of Perma-Flex Systems restored the statue after the colour faded and the fibreglass cracked. The latest restoration aims to reaffirm Kenora as a tourism hotspot.