HAY RIVER - A search is on in Hay River for a sign from a landmark building in the community.

In this photo from 2005, Garth Mackie stands in front of The Zoo - a landmark bar that closed that year in Hay River. The sign in the background was recently stolen. - NNSL file photo

About three weeks ago, 'The Zoo's sign was stolen from the closed bar, which opened in the late 1950s.

The sign itself had only been in place for a dozen years, but its disappearance has upset many people with fond memories of the bar.

Garth Mackie, former owner of The Zoo, started a Facebook page in an attempt to get the sign returned.

As of last week, 372 people had signed onto the page - "Return The Zoo Sign."

"It's sort of taken on a life of its own," Mackie said of the Facebook response to the sign's disappearance.

Some people are contributing their recollections about The Zoo, while others are expressing their disgust that someone would steal the sign.

Some residents are offering tips on who may have done the dastardly deed.

Mackie said four names keep popping up as possible suspects.

"I know for a fact one person could not have stolen it," he said, adding it was hanging by chains from a beam high off the ground and the beam was bolted to a pole.

"It was by no means an easy feat to get it down," he said.

The former owner of The Zoo thinks the removal of the sign was a prank, and he hopes to get it back before anyone is charged.

Hopefully, someone will drop it off to him, he said. "I wouldn't say boo to them."

Mackie sold the building in which The Zoo operated to Northern Transportation Company Ltd. almost five years ago.

"It's all NT's, but it holds a special place in my heart," he said, adding he still has keys to the building and keeps an eye on it.

If the sign is recovered, Mackie said he and NTCL believe it should probably be donated to the Hay River Heritage Centre.

However, he added a replica of the sign may be placed on the building because many tourists stop to get their pictures taken in front of it.

Mackie has offered a Texas mickey as a reward for the sign's return. "I thought it was an appropriate reward for what the sign represented."