Dec. 11, 2002. 08:02 AM
Shania's catsuit has a home
Northern city Timmins is just bursting with pride
SUSAN PIGG
BUSINESS REPORTER
TIMMINSTom Waller is among the thousands of people who have made the trek to this remote northern city to worship at the Shrine To Shania.
He's probably the first to do it in a kilt. But when you've spent a lot of time and money to fly all the way from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to the Canadian hometown of one of the hottest female artists in history, you want the locals to know.
And they did. Waller arrived on the two days a week that the $6-million Shania Twain Centre is closed. But the manager, who doubles as the local tourism officer from his spot at the centre's main desk, was only too happy to unlock the turnstile and give him a solo tour.
"I was in awe," says Waller. "I was amazed to read the hand-written lyrics to songs I now know so well, to read the amendments and additions in Mutt (her husband) and Shania's handwriting, her videos and the actual costumes used to film the videos and worn on tour."
If the discovery of gold back in 1909 wasn't enough to put Timmins on the map, a few sequined outfits certainly were.
Since the centre opened in July of last year, close to 30,000 people have visited from as far away as New Zealand for what amounts to a half-hour walk through the pop-country star's life and closets, ending with a 12-minute video.
More would have come by now, no doubt, if Twain hadn't gone into self-imposed exile for two years to get away from the spotlight, focus on her marriage to producer Robert John (Mutt) Lange and have a baby boy.
Now that she's on the job again with her new, chart-topping CD, Up! not to mention on the cover of People, Redbook and next month's Rolling Stone the locals are eagerly anticipating her long-promised visit to the centre, likely next summer.
In the meantime, Twain regularly sends her good wishes to the museum, along with her trademark outfits and mounting musical
awards, by FedEx."I always open up the envelope and say, `Oh, look. Shania's hand-me-down. If only it fit," jokes Tracy Hautanen, customer service manager at the centre, which also features the Timmins Underground Gold Mine Tour from May to October.
"You couldn't ask for a better ambassador for Timmins. She just wore that outfit to the Country Music Awards Nov. 6 and Nov. 16 it arrived by Fed Ex," Hautanen says, pointing to a racy, post-pregnancy black lace catsuit.
Shania Twain's life is neatly laid out here, from the piano she played as a child to the outfits she sported on album covers and the stunningly simple white wedding dress she wore in 1993 when she married the reclusive Lange. (He's not in any of the wedding photos on display here. Few public pictures of him exist, despite photographers' love affair with his highly photogenic wife and her famous midriff.)
There's also the standard yearbook shot of Twain, back when she was still known as Eilleen and looked just as awkward and gawky as every other classmate, despite the fact she started singing in bars after hours at the age of 8.
There are pictures of her mother and stepfather, who died in a head-on collision when she was just 21, forcing her to become mom to her three younger siblings, whom she supported by moving to Huntsville and beginning her now legendary singing career at the Deerhurst Resort.
And then there is the main attraction: the clothes, many covered in a blinding number of sparkles and sequins. The centre started with seven and is up to 19, allowing organizers to change displays regularly. The centre is about to order more of the super tiny headless mannequins it had custom-made two years ago to bring out the best, so to speak, in Twain's clothes.
It's about time for more shelves, too, given that the awards, including Grammys and Junos, just keep coming.
There is even a Don's Pizzeria box on display, as much a testament to her favourite local cuisine as her love of her hometown.
Those who don't get their fill of Twain here can also drive down Shania Twain Way, sit in the Shania Twain parkette or walk down
Timmins' main street to see her handprints imprinted in concrete.Make no mistake. This is a deadly serious love affair with the local hero. But it's also got a funny side.
In 1998, a number of northern communities were looking to ease their dependence on dwindling resource-based industries. Timmins came up with the idea for an underground hotel and complex to celebrate its long mining history. That idea fell through, but attention quickly turned to Twain, who was mining a lot of musical gold."We thought we'd call it the Shania Twain Interpretive Centre," says Jack Watson, Timmins' city clerk. "But nobody knew what the hell `interpretive' meant so we just dropped that and called it the Shania Twain Centre."
The goal was simple: Celebrate a local hero and, in the process, draw more visitors to the nearby gold mine and 18-hole golf course.
Surprisingly, few questioned the $1.5 million contribution Timmins was expected to make.
"One councillor mentioned the fact, `What if she gets pregnant?' He said: `That could be it,'" says Watson. "And you know what? She got pregnant." The unexpected news came shortly after Watson and the design team had flown to Twain's palatial family home in Switzerland to get her input.
"I barely got back and she announced she was pregnant. I quickly said I wasn't the father," says Watson with a wry grin. "It really wasn't what we wanted. She was going to be here to open the centre up. But she couldn't fly she was almost eight months pregnant."
Dozens of people worked day and night in the heat, right up to the centre's July 1 opening last year. Thousands of locals and visitors were expected. "We had tourists here who'd been tracking the weather (which was in the high 20s) on the Internet. They showed up in sandals and shorts and it snowed," says Mayor Jamie Lim.
The people of Timmins are pragmatic. They know an artist can top the charts one day and be gone the next, so the centre is designed to be used for other activities school kids are using the foyer as a recital hall up until Christmas if Twain ducks out of the limelight for good.
"But she's such a world-wide phenomenon. She's got a tremendous following. People contact us from all over the world," says Watson.
"She's very happy about the centre. And as she said to me once, `It's a great place to store my stuff.'"
------ reproduced with kind permission of the largest circulation newspaper in Canda, the Toronto Daily Star ---------
WAY TO GO SHANIA!
WAY TO GO TIMMINS!
Thank you TOM and WAY TO GO! 
It's very nice to see how many more articles are appearing on the Centre...
Fran, Now if you mean an Autographed Photo of me wearing the Kilt signed by Shania, oooh that would be nice.... So if you could just arrange the meeting with Shania and I at the STC I am free toward the end of December 
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