Squamish resident woke up this morning to a media storm over the supposed banishment of the giant lumberjack that highway greets drivers known as Sam.
Only problem is, Sam's not been banished -he's "on sabbatical," according to Bryan Couture, president of Sam's owners, the Squamish Days Logger Sports Committee.
"We're repairing him, the winter was pretty hard on him," said Couture.
Mayor Greg Gardner said it's true the organization tasked with managing the Adventure Centre requested Sam be taken down until its use as a Logger Sports promotional tool is once again needed. But this morning's (Friday June 4), Vancouver Sun front page headline, "Iconic Sam the Lumberjack banished from Squamish," is wrong.
"I'm just troubled that the headline in today's Vancouver Sun is inaccurate. Sam the Lumberjack has not been banished from Squamish," he said.
For the past four years or so, the statue has appeared on the Adventure Centre grounds in the months leading up to Squamish Days Logger Sports as a promotional tool. Once the event is over, it's always been returned to storage.
This year, however, Sam stayed up through the winter as a way to greet Olympic visitors, and it seems the decision may come back to haunt the group tasked with what happens at the Adventure Centre, the Squamish Sustainability Corporation (SSC) - a municipal arm's length corporation with a board made entirely of Squamish councilors.
While he was up, people argued against his prominent position.
"I had people approach me that SAM should not stay up for various reasons," said Gardner.
And now the SSC is being panned for requesting that it be taken down, despite an invitation for Sam's return in the weeks leading up to Logger Sports.
Along with the Vancouver Sun article, Sam has also had a champion in a Vancouver man, who created the Facebook page to "Save Sam," and the story was also picked up by CBC Radio on Friday morning.
In an on air interview, Al McIntosh, whose been the voice of Logger Sports events for over 50 years, denounced the decision to have the statue removed, saying it represents Squamish's heritage.
Couture said Sam could not remain exposed year round because he's too fragile anyway. But he adds the SSC doesn't have the level of appreciation for Sam they should.
"I think if anybody ever sat at that Adventure Centre for any time of the day would be amazed at how many hundreds of people actually were stopping in there," he said.
"And hopefully were stopping to spend some money in Squamish. And to me that's what it's all about. Sam is for everybody. It's not just for Squamish Days."
Gardner was dubious over Sam's true weight as a tourist attraction.
"I don't believe that many people would go out of their way to make Squamish a tourism destination to see Sam," he said adding he doesn't have the "hard figures" to prove how many driver stop explicitly for Sam.
"I know that Sam is quite popular. I have seen large numbers of people having their photograph taken in front of Sam. Sam is a popular icon," said Gardner.
But there is a silver lining to all the strife, said Couture.
"Even though it's bad, it's always good because you're getting a lot of people interested in what's going on. If it's on CBC radio, something's good," said Couture.
"When it gets out of the community and people say 'What's going on with Sam?' To me that should be ringing heads and say 'Look, maybe we should do something different here.'"
The Squamish Days Committee is now considering requests to place Sam in other locations, and Chances Casino is currently topping the list. A few other locations include Brackendale and the Callaghan Valley.
But any appearance is good for the community, said Couture.
"When you go to a town that's got something big and stands out, you always stop to get your picture with it, and it always says the name of the town on it, so you know where you've been."
Meanwhile, the SSC board is also considering the fate of its grounds. The board has had requests to place other iconic structures on the grounds, such as the Test of Metal anvil.
Gardner said the SSC accepted the Test of Metal request, and placed the same parameters as they do on Sam - that it can only be erected in the weeks leading up to the event. In the end, Test of Metal organizers decided not to go ahead with it.
