It has been a record setting year for the Tyrrell Museum, posting its best numbers ever.

Even in a struggling economy, the Tyrrell has posted numbers surpassing its best ever this year, projecting in the area of 455,000 visitors this fiscal year.This is the highest since 1991, when the museum began charging admission.

“We have been averaging a 20 per cent increase or more very month,” said Carrie-Ann Lunde, head of marketing and public relations for the Tyrrell.

Previous to this year, 1993 was the best year for attendance, and every other year has been compared to that, as they hosted 445,000 people coming through the door. So far this year to date the Tyrrell is up 13.5 per cent over last season, and over 20 per cent higher than the 5-year average. 

This summer, May to August, has been the busiest in 20 years, and in August the museum hosted its 12th millionth visitor. 

Lunde says there are a number of reasons that the Tyrrell is seeing such strong numbers. One of these include the release of Jurassic World. This mirrors the 1993 season, the same year that the original Jurassic Park was on the big screen.  In theaters across the country, viewers of the movie were exposed to commercials about Drumheller and the Royal Tyrrell Museum. 

“We had a new exhibit and had incredible international exposure around the discovery and release of Hell Boy, I think that this played a significant factor,” said Lunde.

This is on top of the Tyrrell’s own marketing campaign.

“The marketing campaign we have been running for the last couple years, ‘Welcome to Dinosaur Country,’ has been incredibly popular and effective. The imagery is connecting with people and aligning with all those other initiatives that are happening in the tourism industry, and we’re seeing the success of that.”

Another factor Lunde cites is partnerships the museum has built.

“We have been increasing our partnerships with other museums and tourism organizations to raise the profile of the Drumheller area as a whole, and working with  tourist operators on new itineraries. All of these things we have done over the past number of years are really gaining momentum, and that is where you are starting to see that influx of travellers, especially from out of province,” said Lunde.

American visitorship alone is up 19 per cent. She doesn’t discount the strength of the American dollar in Canada as a factor, but sees the value in collaboration.

“We have been participating on more collaborative relationships in cross promotions which has been integral,” she said.

Looking down the road the Tyrrell is looking into the second phase of its three year gallery reconstruction project. 

“Fossils in Focus was the beginning of that. In a couple weeks, we’ll be starting the demolition plans for Alberta Unearthed. It is all part of updating the introductory part of the museum. The museum will be under construction in this part of the gallery through the winter and will be opening in the spring,” she said.

“It will be a space to introduce people to the concepts of palaeontology. Instead of just being objects on the shelf, we want to explain more about what palaeontology is.”

(Submitted photo)

The rain and cold weather didn’t stop the Tough Mudders from participating on the course and taking on the various obstacles brought to the Drumheller Stampede Grounds this weekend.

Spectators dressed warm and trudged through the muddy conditions to watch and cheer on their favourite mudder while they took on the various obstacles and ran through the mud. 

Participants crossed the finish line with smiles and cheers of joy after having completed the event. 

Many residents from the Drumheller area participated in, some as repeat Mudders and others as first time participants. 

Kim Masson and her son Kyle participated for the first time this year. Masson said she volunteered during the 2014 Tough Mudder event and decided then that she wanted to be a participant this year. 

“I decided (to participate) last year when I was volunteering. Now I didn’t know it was going to be the weather that it was… mind you I think it would be hard to do in the heat too. I think you would be more apt to do things because it is warm opposed to cold,” she said. 

Masson explained that there were several sick people with what looked to be hypothermia but still continued to complete the course. 

“I enjoyed it,” she said. “I am glad I did it. For me it was more of a mental challenge. I am glad that my son did it too. It was a good experience for sure. I wouldn’t say anything negative about it at all, I think it is something everybody should try.”

“The one thing I enjoyed the most was how people help people. You don’t get through stuff like that without the help of people. It is people that you don’t know. We had a team from Calgary helping us out, we had a team from Edmonton helping us out going up the hills because people were losing their shoes and their feet were coming out, we saw a couple girls crying, it is just really hard,” she told The Mail, continuing by saying, “There were lots of comments like ‘what is this stuff?’ and I would say that is called bentonite, because people have never seen, or heard of that. When you add rain to it, it is just not easy, but again we did it and that is just the main thing, you  get through it.” 

“That’s what I like about it, and that is what it is supposed to be about, is everybody will kick in where they are supposed to,” she said. 

“Nobody leaves anybody there, everyone just helps everyone through it, and I think that is awesome.”

Dave Hanik, another local participant, said his team did well at the event. Hanik participated last year, but his other team members were first time Tough Mudder participants. 

“We made it through. Nobody really got hurt or anything like that. It took a little longer than we thought, the mud slowed us down quite a bit, but we did good,” he said. 

Hanik said the comparison between last year’s and this year’s event was the amount of mud.

“With all the rain and the heavy mud and stuff like that I guess it was a big deterrent. Last year when we ran it, the only mud that you hit was the obstacles, this year everywhere you went there was mud, water, and cold,” he explained.

“We saw so many people on the verge of hypothermia, pneumonia, twisted ankles, knees. A lot more people were getting hurt this year I think just with going up and down the hills and stuff like that," he said. 

"There wasn’t a dry spot anywhere on the track, you could never get out of the mud,” he said.