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

A plan to send Tyra the Tyrannosaurus, the popular tourist attraction that towers over the skyline in Drumheller, Alta., into proverbial extinction has sparked demands that she be spared.

The town of 8,400 northeast of Calgary bills itself as the Dinosaur Capital of the World. Home to the famed Royal Tyrrell Museum, the community also has statues of dinosaurs that look like they've crawled out of The Flintstones cartoon greeting people on the streets.

There's an extinct reptile riding a motorcycle. A triceratops in a frilly dress sits on a bus bench. Another dinosaur wearing a fireman's hat and holding a hose is poised outside a fire station.

The biggest is Tyra, standing across from the intersection of Gorgosaurus Street and Tyrannosaurus Drive near a visitor information centre. A nearby ice cream stand offers fossils, T-shirts and dino toys.

The 25-metre-high figure, four times the size of a real T. Rex, attracts 150,000 visitors a year, serving as the backdrop to hundreds of thousands of tourist photos over the last quarter of a century.

Tourists can climb 106 stairs through her innards to stand inside her mouth and look down.

But she's set to become history at the end of 2029.

Built in 2000, the giant dinosaur fit into the industry of the town, with its vast fossil finds and museum, which hosts over 130,000 fossils.

While the town owns the land where she's located, the Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce owns the attraction. And the chamber said the dinosaur is set to be dismantled when the lease runs out.

"We developed a new strategic plan last year, and part of it was to look at the dinosaur and the future of the dinosaur. So the board knew there was a limited lifespan of the dinosaur, and these decisions had to be made," said the chamber's executive director, Heather Bitz.

She said the chamber has received public backlash. The reaction was expected, as there's an emotional attachment to Tyra, she said. But it's not a move the chamber intends to back away from.

"I don't believe so at this time. We're firm on our decision," she said.

Mayor Heather Colberg says the news came as a shock, and the town has demanded meetings with the chamber and Travel Drumheller.

"We are the dinosaur capital of the world and the world's largest dinosaur has been very iconic in our community. We're going to look for some solutions," she said.