And just like that, it was gone.

Sometime over the weekend, an older mobile home that had been dropped at the Copperbelt Railway and Mining Museum’s property off the Alaska Highway, just south of McIntyre Creek, disappeared from the property.

Some tires had also been left next to the mobile home in the middle of the driveway on the property.

Museum officials will dispose of them at the city’s landfill, Angela Drainville, executive director of the Miles Canyon Railway Society, said today.

The group operates the museum and the waterfront trolley, both of which are only open through the summer.

Drainville said that a couple of days after the trailer was left at the site, she took to a Buy & Sell site on Facebook to try to find the owner to take it away.

Someone claiming to be a friend of the trailer’s owner got back to the museum, indicating their anger that it had been posted to social media.

The person noted a tire had blown while the trailer was being hauled, so it was left there until they could get back to it, while others encouraged the museum to accept it as a gift.

Such a gift would be a significant cost to the museum to fix up, Drainville told the Star.

Even if it had been left as a donation, she said, there’s paperwork that has to be signed.

“We can’t even accept it,” she said.

This clearly wasn’t a case of a donation being left on the museum’s doorstep.

There have been a number of times, however, where artifacts have been left for the museum with no indication of where they are from.

That makes it next to impossible for the museum to take possession of such items and put them on display.

It’s an issue many museums have, Drainville said. She encourages anyone who wants to donate to a museum to get in touch with the museum first.

Drainville also contacted the city’s bylaw department about the trailer left on the property before it was removed over the weekend.

The incident makes a strong case for barricades to be put in place prohibiting access through the winter months when the facility is closed for the season, Drainville said.

Though barriers are being considered, Drainville said, a number of skiers, snowshoers and others use the site recreationally in the off-season, and she doesn’t want to limit access to those users.