Mini city is labor of love for 2 Carlsbad residents
By Martha Mauritson, Carlsbad Current-Argus, N.M. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
In fact, the miniature replica of old
And its creators intend for it to be a teaching tool and a learning experience for everyone -- young or old, teacher or student -- who visits it at the
The project may be completed in another year and a half, the men tell each other.
The dream was Jung's: he wanted to build a huge display of miniatures like the 39,000-square-foot one he saw in
"My idea was to build something similar and charge admission," Jung says.
Now married to a
The hang up was the space: He couldn't find an affordable building with the space he would need.
Almost two years ago, the idea took a turn when Willi met then-museum director
She offered him a room at the museum if he could scale down his plans -- from 7,000 square feet to about 900.
The subject of the display began to take shape -- it would be the city of
About this time Porter entered the picture, experienced in constructing miniatures for model railroad projects.
In other miniature displays the men had seen, there was nothing true to life.
That challenge was all they needed: they would build a
They began to seek out the historical society, and people like
The photos from Howard's site would be copied in every respect, from size to building material to signs and show window contents.
Also on line, Willi found a 560-page manuscript called Chronology of
Making it true to life
The two talked about the project and realized they needed a map.
On line they found a site with old maps, and one put out by an insurance company was just what they needed.
The date of the map became the date for their project:
From this city map, they could find the size and shape of each building, From Howard's photos and some assumptions about the standard size of doorways, the project's 1:48 scale was arrived at.
A quarter of an inch, Porter said, equals a foot; a 1.5-inch figure is equal to a 6-foot person.
The figures of people, trees or chickens, for example, are purchased from hobby shops and model train supply businesses.
Special items like a hay rake or a hay wagon were made by Jung and Porter.
The buildings are all built from scratch by the two. The dirt and tiny stones on the roads came from the alley out back. The hay windrowed in the field is, what else, hay -- chopped fine with scissors. And all is held down with diluted Elmers glue.
Porter is high on the educational value of this project, and he wants everyone to come by, "To get an idea of what life was like a hundred years ago."
And along the way, the builders heard many anecdotes about life in 1905 Carlsbad.
There's the corner saloon in a building that was formerly a bank. The saloon owners scraped the bank's name off the windows, leaving just the word "bank," That let customers tell their wives with a clear conscience, "I just have to stop at the bank."
In return, Porter pointed out, the wives countered by donating funds for a fountain in front of the saloon. Thus, the men would have no reason to say, "I only went to the saloon because I was thirsty."
And just as it was in 1905, the fountain and the bank signs are still in their place in "Little Old Carlsbad."
Then there was the Chinese lady who came in a while back. As she walked along the east side of town, the red brick oven in back of a building caught her eye and she exclaimed, "That was my father's bakery."
Another woman, visiting with the builders and looking at the streets, finally stopped and exclaimed, "Where are your outhouses?"
Porter admitted that "There are lots of them, and we didn't have any."
That omission was quickly corrected.
The future
The project is made up of two completed modules thus far, but the plans are a long way from being completed.
Two or more modules yet to come will include the potash business and the sugar beet factory.
Also to come are animated features -- some 20 or more -- that will move at the push of a button so visitors can see how things worked.
There are the tiny LEDs, a single one of which can serve as a ceiling light inside the rooms of a buildings.
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(c)2014 the Carlsbad Current-Argus (Carlsbad, N.M.)
Visit the Carlsbad Current-Argus (Carlsbad, N.M.) at www.currentargus.com
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