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| 'A piece of history' |
Missouri carpenter Marty Wyatt assembles the model at the Bassett Historical Center. (Bulletin photos by Mike Wray) |
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Sunday, March 9, 2008
By AMANDA BUCK - Bulletin Staff Writer
Missouri carpenter Marty Wyatt recently spent two weeks building a scale model of Jack’s Creek Covered Bridge in Patrick County, complete with replicated Smith River sand and a removable side wall.
On Thursday morning, Wyatt delivered the 90-pound model to the Bassett Historical Center, where it will become a permanent part of the collections. The donation was made possible by members of the Virginia Covered Bridge Society, who commissioned the model.
“It’s a piece of history,” said Izzy DeJesus of Bassett, a past president of the society. “You can look at it and imagine the people that went through it, the people who built it.”
The model was donated in honor of DeJesus, who became interested in covered bridges during a trip to Maine several years ago and has been hooked ever since. Steve Pierce, another member of the covered bridge society, asked Wyatt to build the model after purchasing Wyatt’s replica of Alleghany County’s Humpback Bridge, which he keeps in his Portsmouth home.
Wyatt agreed to make the Jack’s Creek Bridge for the Bassett center and used photographs and condition reports to construct the model. It is built on a 1:16 scale.
Like the actual bridge, built in 1914, the model rests on stone outcroppings and spans the Smith River — this one created to scale, of course. Wyatt broke the dimensions of the bridge down into millimeters to create the model, which is about 3 feet long, compared with the real thing’s 48 feet, 6 inches.
The model is made of yellow poplar and yellow pine and is topped with a metal roof. Model trees made of real wood and polyfiber stand at both ends.
Wyatt is particularly happy with the removable side wall, which he slipped off to reveal trusses built to echo the framework of the original structure. Beams called queen posts support Jack’s Creek Bridge, which was common for short-span bridges built at the time, Wyatt said.
Although he has made more than a dozen bridge models for family and groups in several states, Wyatt is not a full-time model maker. A union carpenter based in Chesterfield, Mo., he helps build roads, bridges and dams. He even helped rebuild seven covered bridges in Kentucky.
Like Pierce and DeJesus, Wyatt appreciates the bridges’ history. Chronicling that history is something Pierce has been involved in firsthand. His mother, Leola B. Pierce, wrote two books about Virginia’s covered bridges, and he helped with the research.
Having the model on display at the historical center dovetails with the society’s mission to educate people about covered bridges, he said.
DeJesus agreed.
“The more people know, the more (they) might get into preservation,” he said.
Pat Ross, supervisor of the historical center, believes the model will attract interest.
“We’ll have a lot of people come and see it,” said Ross, who accepted the donation on behalf of the center.
Including the Jack’s Creek bridge, there are seven remaining covered bridges in Virginia. The state’s official covered bridge festival is held each year in Patrick County, which also is home to the Bob White Covered Bridge.
The Jack’s Creek bridge is on the northeast side of Route 615 just west of Virginia 8. It is about 2 miles south of Woolwine. |
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