`Iconic' Cochrane statue vandalized

Mayor calls case an `anomaly'

Cochrane mayor Jeff Genung said he was saddened and disappointed after vandals damaged an iconic statue in the town.

“It's hard to put into words. When people think about Cochrane, they think about that statue,” he said. “It's a reflection of our history and our roots with ranching in Alberta and where we've come from — it's an iconic piece of our community.”

The statue of a cowboy on a horse, which sits at the top of a hill in Cochrane Ranch, is now surrounded by orange barricades after all four of the horse's legs were discovered with deep cuts on Saturday. The incident has been reported to the RCMP, and the statue has been assessed for its stability and safety.

Commissioned by Alberta Culture between 1976 and 1977 for Malcolm James Mackenzie, who lived in Cochrane and Banff his entire life, Genung said he witnessed its unveiling as a child.

“It's weird to think about how long it's stood there and looked over our community. The premier came to Cochrane and unveiled it. I remember those days; it was pretty cool,” the mayor recalled.

When Genung first heard of the defacement, he thought it was a cruel joke, someone trying to get a rise out of him and other people. “When you think about being robbed, or someone's broken into your home or your car, just that personal invasion — it's that invasion of our community. People are reacting like it's a piece of them that's taken,” he said.

Genung wants to see the perpetrators caught and punished.

“Whether they were trying to steal it for the bronze, which would be very difficult to pull out of there, or it's just a stupid stunt that someone's doing for attention, either way, it has the same impacts on our community and it's just too bad.”

He called the incident a oneoff for the town. “We have, like every community, acts of vandalism here and there — a fence kicked down or some spray paint on something — people being people. This is a one-off, it's an anomaly.”

Mackenzie's widow reached out to Genung a few years ago out of concern about the fate of her late husband's masterpiece during the construction of an interchange project. “I assured her that it was a provincial project and that there were no plans to change anything significant in the Cochrane Ranch.”

Genung said the town's current focus is getting the statue fixed. “Our intention is to put everything back into its original state and have the monument look over the valley here for years to come.”

Cochrane RCMP is currently investigating the incident.