The Jubilee Park swan sculpture has been an iconic symbol of Grande Prairie for over half a century. But time and vandalism had left the swan in rough shape.
The swan was removed for repairs and has been restored by the Grande Prairie Museum’s Tim Moore.
“When it came to the museum, it was missing a foot,” museum curator Charles Taws told The Article. “The whole underside of the tail had rotted out. Someone had drilled some holes in it, and it had many cracks.”
Moore has rebuilt the fibreglass and made the swan a new foot.
“Moore copied the existing foot out of wood, so that’s now the base, and he has it covered with fibreglass,” Taws said.
“So the foot is back. The tail has been repaired. All the holes and cracks filled in.”
The only thing left to do is to repaint the swan.
“You won’t be able to tell it was repaired. It’ll look like the original,” Taws said.
The Story Behind the Swan
Taws said he’s found some contradictory information on the origins of the swan sculpture.
“I have one source that says that the sculpture was made by Edmonton artist J. H. Bell, who I researched and he seems to be more of a photographer. I found another article that said it was designed by a local lady named Fran Koffler,” he said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Fran created the trumpeter swan figure, a smaller version, and J.H. Bell actually made the large version.”
Taws says another article he found said Koffler carved the original statue out of wood for her square dance group.
“It was a square dance club called the Prairie Squares. It was formed in ‘51 and then in the ‘60s Francis Koffler was a member, and she carved a one foot tall statue of a trumpeter swan out of birch as a symbol for their club, and this symbol was adopted as the official emblem for the city of Grande Prairie.”
Taw said the original sculpture was commissioned to celebrate Grande Prairie’s Golden Anniversary in 1964.
“So in 1914 Grande Prairie was designated a village, and ‘64 would be the 50th, the golden anniversary of that, and [the swan] originally sat at the north entrance to Grande Prairie before being moved to Jubilee Park in 1967.”
Two years later, the sculpture was stolen.
“They did catch the fellow, it was a 19-year-old youth, and he was fined $826.50. You can imagine that was quite a bit of money in 1969,” Taws said.
“They never recovered the original statue. So, the statue that’s there today is a copy and it’s almost identical. It’s a copy that was made in ‘69 and installed in 1970.”
That makes the current sculpture 57 years old this year.
Taws said the original swan was used on advertising, pins, and patches up until at least 10 years ago, and at one time you could get little statues of it as souvenirs from Al’s News.
Longtime Al’s News owner Jim Goldsack says more ceramic swans could be made today.
“I still have molds of the swan and a larger finished version of the swan that was sold here for years,” he told The Article.
The larger version of the swan was used for official gifts.
“The city used to buy these from us. Every time a dignitary came in they gave them one,” Goldsack said.
The smaller six inch version of the swan was more durable, with the neck and wings attached instead of having negative space like the larger swan.
“It was meant to travel,” Goldsack says.
But to make new swan keepsakes, Al’s News would need to work with a ceramic artist or artists to pour and finish them. In the past there were four or five different women who would make the swans. But they need to be made in multiples to make it worthwhile for an artist to invest the time. Goldsack isn’t sure the demand is still there, unless the City decides to order more.
“Things have changed so much. Even tourism. People don’t come downtown anymore. It’s all online,” he said.
“One Mayor came in and said we’re not Swan City anymore. We’re going to be Cybercity. Well that lasted about as long as a unicorn fart. Are we still Swan City? I don’t know.”
Meanwhile, the living trumpeter swans come every year.
“They’re the only thing that’s dependable around here,” said Goldsack.
A Local Legacy of Trumpeter Swans
Documents at the museum show Grande Prairie was known for trumpeter swans well before the first sculpture was made. By the 1950s, and maybe earlier, people had also started to notice their numbers declining.
“Bernard Hamm was a naturalist in this area, and he worked very hard to make sure the swans were saved. In the 1950s, he was known as the Swan Guardian of the Peace,” Taws said.
“There was quite a movement for the trumpeter swans right from the 50s. There’s all out efforts to keep them going.”
Local conservationist and researcher Beth Sheehan is also known for championing trumpeter swans as a symbol of the city after seeing a pair nesting on Clairmont Lake.
But there are earlier historical references too, Taws notes. The earliest was by cartographer and surveyor David Thompson, who saw swans in 1803. Oliver “Rutabaga” Johnson, a farmer known for growing two acres of rutabagas in Beaverlodge in the early 1900s, mentioned seeing trumpeter swans specifically. (The Johnson farm is now part of the South Peace Centennial Museum.)
Taws said other notes about seeing swans were made in the 1920s, but it wasn’t until 1939 that trumpeter swans were recognized as being indigenous to this area.
There was also a local family who became famous for their swans. In the 1940s, Joseph Tomshak rescued five signets, or baby swans, in a dried up slough. Four of those five swans lived to maturity.
“They’ve become part of the folklore of the region because the Tomshak farm was in Clairmont, but these swans kind of bonded with the Tomshaks, and when they would drive to Grande Prairie or Sexsmith shopping or whatever, you could see them flying behind the vehicle,” Taws said.
“They would land and they’d guard the car while they were shopping, and if you went near the car the swans would go after you.”
Two of the swans were sent to a wildlife sanctuary in Manitoba, but two died and were taxidermied and mounted.
“I have one here at the Grande Prairie Museum, which was for many years in the pavilion here in the park, but it’s at the museum here now,” Taws said.
Where Will the Swan Sculpture Land Now?
Taws says the story of how swans came to symbolize Grande Prairie ties together a lot of famous people, from early pioneers to artists, and it’s an important part of what makes the City special.
“That’s one of those unique community stories that we share with nobody else, and these are the types of stories that we need to celebrate because they’re what make us unique,” he said.
“Nobody else has a story quite like this one.”
But it remains to be seen where the story of the Jubilee park swan sculpture, one of the first official symbols of Grande Prairie, will finally end.
“It always was the intention that it will go back out on display,” Taws said. “We just don’t know where.”
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