The largely Star Trek themed memorabilia museum Trekcetera in Vulcan, Alberta will be moving to Drumheller.
The move is about business for the museum, as they hope to attract more visitors and become the second year-round attraction in Drumheller, next to the Tyrrell.
“It’s just not happening here,” said co-owner Devan Daniels. “Vulcan is very much a seasonal town and we need more business to make the museum thrive and grow.”
Daniels said Trekcetera attracted between 3,500 and 4,000 visitors a year in Vulcan since opening there three years ago, and projects they’ll attract ten times more visitors by moving to Drumheller.
The museum will be moving into the vacant building which previously held Sunshine Windows and Glass, on Highway 9, giving them triple the space of Trekcetera’s current location.
Two-thirds of the museum is Star Trek related, but the remaining third is devoted to a variety of other film and television memorabilia. One specifically Drumheller related item is a cape worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman 3, shot in southern Alberta in 1983.
The first Superman film was filmed partially in Drumheller in 1978.
Trekcetera also has an extensive collection of items from Steven Spielberg’s last television series Terra Nova, which centres on a futuristic society which recolonizes prehistoric earth in order to survive. They have all the costumes from the principal actors and several props from the show.
“Our museum is not strictly a dinosaur attraction but it’s a good attraction and people looking for other things to do besides dinosaurs will have another option in Drumheller,” said Daniels.
Once Trekcetera moves to Drumheller, Daniels said they will focus on collecting items from local film history in order to represent the area better.
“Drumheller is a great filming location for a wide variety of movies, and our museum is all about television and film memorabilia, so we’d fit in with that aspect of Drumheller,” he said.
Trekcetera will be closing in early September, and after a few well-deserved weeks off, the co-owners will begin the move after taking possession in October and complete renovations in time for an early spring 2017 opening.
“We’re very excited to be moving there and so far everyone we’ve talked to in Drumheller got really excited about the idea of setting up shop there,” said Daniels. “We’re feeling welcome and it’s a good feeling.”
