Alpine Al: Alpen Horn Man

Smithers, British Columbia

Alpine Al is a seven-foot-high wooden statue of a puff-cheeked man blowing a ten-foot-long Alps Horn, and the official mascot of the Bavarian-happy Canadian town of Smithers. He originally stood outside the Edelweiss Motel in nearby Rock Creek, but when it burned down in 1973, Smithers swooped in and hauled Alpine Al away in a station wagon.

In 2013, Smithers' centennial, the town was embarrassed to learn that none of its citizens played the Alps Horn. Two were imported from the town of Dunster. They obligingly honked their horns on Main Street within earshot of Alpine Al.

Canadian weather took its toll on the statue, and in 2016 Alpine Al was replaced with a new version, carved from a thousand-year-old red cedar. The sculptor, Joerg Jung, designed break points between Al's mouth and the horn, which was fortunate because in late 2022 and early 2023 Bavarian-envious vandals knocked Al's horn into Main Street. It was quickly reattached both times, and local authorities vowed to keep a close eye on Smithers' civic icon.