Cheadle, a hamlet in Wheatland County, is trending on social media and attracting crowds of visitors to the community to view a new, giant Cheeto statue.
The statue, which stands about 17 metres tall, depicts two fingers and a thumb holding the giant, orange Cheeto and covered in the snack’s infamous orange cheese dust-which, according to a 2015 Tweet by company mascot Chester Cheetah, is called cheetle.
“It’s amazing the power of social media,” says Wheatland County Division 4 Councillor Tom Ikert.
Mr. Ikert’s division encompasses the hamlet of Cheadle, which is about 100 kilometres southwest of Drumheller, just off Highway 1 between the towns of Chestermere and Strathmore.
With fewer than 100 residents, the Cheadle Cheeto has drawn more visitors than the entire population of the hamlet.
“When I heard about (the Cheadle Cheeto) on about October 1 or 2, I didn’t believe it at first,” Councillor Ikert tells the Mail.
Councillor Ikert says he has tried to get Cheadle’s name on the map the last five years he has served on council, but with little success, and is happily surprised to see how much interest the community has garnered organically.
He notes Wheatland County had no involvement in bringing the giant Cheeto to Cheadle; Frito Lay and Pepsico, the companies behind the infamous snack, contacted the Cheadle Community Club and made all the arrangements through them.
Over the Thanksgiving long weekend, the statue drew many visitors to the community. Councillor Ikert says he heard from farmers there were upwards of 40 people at a time to take photos.
This is not the only development which has drawn attention to the area, either.
In September, De Havilland Aircraft of Canada announced a new state-of-the-art aircraft assembly facility, which will be located about six kilometres west of Cheadle and will create an estimated 1,500 jobs; the Cheadle Cheeto is about two miles east of this development.
However, the statue will not be a permanent fixture in the community.
A press release from the company shares that those looking to celebrate their love for Cheetos will only have until November 4 to do so; the statue is located at 400 Railway Avenue in Cheadle.
Cheadle will celebrate its centennial in 2023.

Two new solar projects held by Capstone Infrastructure are underway in the area.
On Tuesday, October 18, Starland County Reeve Steven Wannstrom and council members Mark Landry and Jackie Watt, joined Capstone CEO Dave Eva, vice president of Capital Project Execution for Capstone Mat Hanna, vice president of Borea Construction Marc Richard, and Jamie Urquhart vice president of Keyera Corp., to mark the commencement of the Michichi Solar and Kneehill Solar projects.
The Michichi Solar Project, located north of Drumheller and the Kneehill Solar Project, located north of the Town of Three Hills have a combined construction capital cost of about $130 million. When completed, it will produce 25 MWac of electricity each, enough to power 12,000 homes every year.
On Tuesday, they installed the first panel. It is slated to be fully operational in the spring.
Eva said when the Michchi project goes online it will be their second solar project in the province. He says they worked closely with the landowners and the county to make the project a reality.
“Every project we do we are only as good as the relationships we can sustain with our host communities. Every time we look at a new asset and a new project site, the first question is what are your relationships like with your neighbours? What are your relationships like with your landowners? What are your relationships like with the local government? And I think you will find Capstone will do whatever we can to make sure this is a beneficial relationship. We plan to be here for decades,” Eva said.
Work has already commenced, and the bulk of the racks have been installed.
This will create more than 100 jobs on-site during peak construction.
It will also provide property tax revenue of $8 million to both Starland and Kneehill County over the operational life of the projects.
Saw Ridge First Nation is an equity partner in the two projects.
Power generated from Michichi will be sold under a power purchase agreement to Keyera Corp., helping the Calgary-based company achieve its decarbonization goals, showcasing how the renewable energy and oil and gas sectors are working together to reduce emissions. “We have, as an organization, commitments with respect to how we are going to reduce our carbon footprint with our assets, and this is part of that,” said Jamie Urquhart, vice president of Keyera Corp. “We are very proud of our track record over the last 25 years in being a good environmental steward for the planet…this is an exciting day for us.”
Each project will offset approximately 30,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.