When it comes to Mac the Moose and the world’s largest moose statue, the reality is straightforward and simple.
Storelgen – Norway’s silver goliath – is the largest statue of its kind in the world by about 30 centimetres. That’s a simple fact and isn’t going to change.
For now.
That’s because more than $39,000 has been raised so far to restore Mac to his former stature, courtesy a $25,000 donation by Moosehead Breweries and an ongoing GoFundMe campaign that has brought in over $14,000 of a planned $50,000.
All that money will be put to good use when the time comes, says Moose Jaw mayor Fraser Tolmie.
“It’s in the very early stages,” he explained. “We’re having an engineer look into Mac and his lifespan and make sure that what we do is feasible and structurally sound. Once we get a report back on that, Jackie L’Heureux and Tourism Moose Jaw are looking after this and it’s in very capable hands… we trust them to make the right decisions and we’ll see what happens.”
Given the number and amount of donations, it’s inevitable that something will happen to enable Mac to retain his crown. Whether that means a larger rack of antlers, longer legs or even a new statue altogether if enough funds are raised is yet to be seen.
“There could be more stories, we’re waiting for this to continue and it could be going on for a long time, folks, be prepared,” Tolmie said. “And we’re happy for that because it is such a good news story.”
For their part, Norway and Stor-Elvdal deputy mayor Linda Otnes Henriksen are essentially resigned to that happening.
“Coming from where I’m from, we would like to have the biggest moose, but there’s nothing we can really do with ours since it is a piece of art,” Henriksen said. “So I’m thinking Canada might have the biggest moose in the future and we’re totally fine with that… I’m just so glad that this attention has raised quite a bit of money for Mac and there will be some work done on him. That’s a great thing that’s come out of this whole thing.”
But there is one caveat, one that came up during the first day of the Moose Summit – Storelgen is a decidedly beautiful moose sculpture, and that could be hard for Mac to match.
“Around the table this morning, we kind of conceded that,” Tolmie said wryly. “It is a nice piece of art, even if we don’t want to take away from Mac. . . I love Mac, he’s very close and near and dear to our hearts, but that is a shiny moose over there. I know I’ve said he looks like a hood ornament, but that’s just jealousy and please forgive me for my comment, that’s a nice moose and even I’d like to get my picture taken with him.”
