A local Sylvan Lake retiree has been working diligently to craft a homage to the Sylvan Lake Lighthouse.
Last week Ray Kjenner presented his astoundingly accurate and to scale model of the Sylvan Lake Lighthouse to Mayor Sean McIntyre. The model came after hours of work and study of the new lighthouse. The model is accurate down to the paving stones that were placed through local donation.
“I am retired so I had time to watch it from the time they tore the old one down and started the construction of the new one,” Kjenner said. “Once I saw information on the size of it and how tall it was going to be - that’s when I first thought I would follow this and attempt to make a model of it at some scale.”
That scale would turn out to be around 1/48th at 1.5 feet tall. Kjenner initially aimed for a 1/50th scale model of the lighthouse. The current Sylvan Lake Lighthouse is around 50 feet tall.
“Getting that small with the detail work starts to get a little tedious so I am a little more then 1/50th I am probably around 1/48th,” he explained.
The model came as a surprise to the Town of Sylvan Lake, as Kjenner didn’t want let them know until he was pleased with the results.
“I didn’t let anyone know because I didn’t know how it was going to work out,” he said. “Trying to come up with a reasonable facsimile was quite a bit of work.”
The materials came from mostly recycled hardware other then a piece of white vinyl siding that Kjenner bought to emulate the siding used on the actual lighthouse. The total amount of hours he spent on the model sits at an estimated 50-80 hours.
During that time, Kjenner made three identical models of the lighthouse based on the template and patterns her created with the first one.
“I had full intentions of making more than one so I saved all my patterns,” he said. “So, when I cut one base - I would cut three bases.”
The first was presented as a gift to the Town of Sylvan Lake, the second is for Kjenner himself and the third will be presented to his son and his girlfriend as a Christmas gift.
“My son has a girlfriend who is from Nova Scotia,” Kjenner said. “She loves everything Nova Scotian and east coast so they will probably be fortunate to see it for Christmas. They probably already know because they have been watching me work on it.”
If you would like to see the model for yourself, it is available for viewing at the Town of Sylvan Lake Municipal building.
reporter@sylvanlakenews.com