|
Welcome to the Parker Area Historical Society! |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|
In 1997 Ruth Miller suggested that the Parker Area Historical Society build some sort of diorama of the early town of Parker. A committee was formed consisting of Ruth, her husband Whit, Larry T. Smith and his wife Susan. A general idea of content and size was identified, as well as an approximate time frame. A scale of N. gauge, (1-160), was proposed. We really wanted to be able to include the 20 Mile House, however even using N. gauge which is the smallest practical scale, including the 20 Mile House with the old town Parker would require an impossible sized layout. A place to put the finished project was identified when the Parker Library gave permission to put it at their facility. The second step was to put out a call for old photos to be used to identify town layout, building configurations, and other town amenities. A significant search was conducted. To make the layout as accurate as possible, four building views were needed, but seldom found. If two elevations were identified, we considered ourselves grateful. We often used pictures to identify buildings, their relationship to other buildings, and appurtenances in the background. It took months to find all the available photos and then months more to develop specific structure sizes, roof pitches, exterior wall construction details, color schemes and the countless other decisions that had to be made. One of those early decisions was the time frame in history, and the 1917 / 1918 time period was chosen. All of this data was entered into a computer program that would determine the control for the laser cutting of each of the thousands of individual pieces that made up the structures that were included in the diorama. Chris Stames and Larry Smith spent 250 hours designing and drawing the blueprints and Larry spent another 100 hours in research. The diorama eventually required 2250 hours to assemble. Then it was time to identify model builders with the desired capabilities, and obtain bids to identify a projected cost of the project. Four capable providers were identified with costs associated running from about $ 29.000, to more that $40.000, for just the model, delivery and setup. The base for the model to set on was to be another cost item. The original model builder chosen was Chuck Stout who built models for the Denver Museum of Natural History, however before a contract could be initiated; Chuck had personal problems and had to back away. He recommended a Chris Stames of Exhibit A Model Builders. Since he was willing to fulfill our contract requirements for relatively the same cost, Exhibit A was chosen and a contract initiated, at a cost of $28.630. Now came the task of raising the money. Grants were received for $8.000 from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, $2000 from Wal-Mart, and $1700 from Wells Fargo. Carriages and Calvary gave $1000. Individuals also contributed. The Historical society sold calendars and books and auctioned off sponsorships of various structures on the diorama. The contract called for a layout of 6 X 8 feet, a model in N gauge, ( 1-160 ), to include approximately 80 structures with accompanying appurtenances such as wind mills, water tanks, telephone poles, people, animals, wagons, buggies, a train track with a Colorado & Southern train, and associated items. A plastic dome cover was to be provided to cover the entire layout.
Site created by Alex Hernandez, Alvie Sellmer, & James Vallejos 2009