Plans for a Terry Fox museum in the city appear to have hit a dead end.
City council on Monday will hear a report detailing correspondence with Darrell Fox, the brother of the late Terry Fox and senior advisor at the Terry Fox Research Institute, who said it is not in the family’s plans to have historical items from the 1980 Marathon of Hope sent to Thunder Bay.
Fox said the family instead envisions a 45,000 square foot facility in Vancouver and does not want to break up their collection of artifacts.
Earlier this year, Coun. Ken Boshcoff advocated for obtaining artifacts from the Fox family, who has nearly 200,000 artifacts in storage, and creating a museum at the site of the Terry Fox Memorial Lookout.
Council approved a resolution in February to contact the Fox family and inquire about the possibility of having a portion of their collection brought to Thunder Bay.
At the time, city tourism manager Paul Pepe said the site, which averages 600 visitors per day in the summer, is not suited for a facility of that kind.
Fox captured the hearts and minds of Canadians 34 years ago when he set out from St. John’s, planning to run west across the country to raise funds and awareness for cancer research.
However, his cross-Canada odyssey came to an end just east of Thunder Bay on Sept. 1, 1980 at mile 3339 when it was discovered his cancer had returned and spread to his lungs.
Among the other items on the agenda, council will also be examining a pair of capital projects at Pioneer Ridge Home for the Aged and replacement of automatic vehicle locator equipment for Superior North EMS.
