A tightknit neighbourhood in Okotoks is reeling after part of a beloved art piece was seemingly stolen.
The sculpture, which sits in the center of Westridge Close Park, features several brass steer skulls, including one sitting on top, which was recently taken.
Westridge Close resident Sheila Hughes noticed the missing head on Saturday, February 22.
"I wasn't sure if something had happened to it and the town had taken it away, or it was vandalized. On Sunday I did speak to the RCMP to let them know what we think happened, and I put out a little note on our Facebook group to see if anyone noticed anything, and nobody had any cameras looking all the way into the park," Hughes explains.
She contacted a member of the Town's Parks team, who said they saw the skull still in place on Thursday (Feb. 20), meaning it would have been taken sometime between Thursday afternoon and Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately, there's not much to go on aside from one speculative report from a community member who saw a group of older teenagers in the park on Friday evening.
If it was a case of vandalism, Hughes is hoping the skull could still be found nearby.
It's possible that it was stolen to be sold as scrap metal, similar to a string of thefts of brass plaques in Alberta a few years ago.
The art piece has sat in Westridge Close for over 20 years, having been installed by a T'suu T'ina artist in 1992.
"His name is Rocky Barstad, he's a local Indigenous artist in High River. Unfortunately, he's hospitalized at the moment, I believe in 2012 he had to close his Two Feathers studio in High River. He's in the hospital so there's no ability for us to reach out to him to have a replacement piece of work done, so that's very sad, and we just find it very disrespectful to the artist for somebody to actually do this."
Many people have been sharing their memories of the park and the sculpture over the last few days.
"So many people said, 'Oh, I remember when that was put in, I played in the park as a child, and I remember the steer heads.' I know my children and grandson love it, they always have. So many people said they remember it and it was a big part of something in the neighbourhood. When they walk through the park now, that's what they go to visit."
The piece was initially left with two pieces of exposed rebar where the missing steer skull once sat, which have now been coated in foam tubing by a nearby resident.
Hughes is hoping the skull is soon recovered if it has, in fact, been discarded. In the case that someone is in possession of it, she's hoping to see it returned, no questions asked.
"If somebody came and returned it to the RCMP or if they just put it on one of the benches there... just put it back. That would be ideal."
