What do you do when your hobby takes over your life? Thirty five year BC Ferries veteran Capt. Roy Wittman has answered that question uniquely. Roy began thinking seriously about retirement six years before the fact. To be healthy in retirement, a person has to be busy, he believes.

So Roy used his talents to produce 1/12" scale Wells Fargo stages and Prairie Schooner wagons. "I loved that so much," he recalls. A few wagons were sold, more to make room for creativity than to make money, and an unexpected business was born. "I had customers from California to South Africa. Demand grew and I felt it was no longer a hobby. It took all my time."

Roy and his wife, Carol, discussed the problem. Roy wanted to build a museum of miniatures. "Carol thought I was a bit crazy, but I kept on with it. Finally she just said: "Get on with it and do it then!"

Now, after years of hard work, Roy had his museum ready for a May 2001 opening in Cardston, Alberta.

Visitors to the museum go back to the time when "Westward Ho" settlers in covered wagons arrived in the Old West. The displays cover native villages, a thriving pioneer fort, a herd of buffalo, forests with many wild animals and a thriving western town. Stables, a blacksmith shop, school, church, general store, hotel and much more, along with over 150 figurines, are found in the town.

Roy made all the buildings and each building has a shake roof, which meant putting 25,000 miniature shakes on by hand. Connecting the buildings is a boardwalk made of over 700 planks.

As time moves on, farming becomes a way of life with horses and then with steam. The oat field in one scene, measuring two feet by four feet, is made up of 12,000 tiny plants. "That took us almost two months to do."

While this stroll through time plays out around the outside walls of the museum, the central showcase gives people a mixture of enjoyments: animal figurines, Indian heads, many displays showing the inside of different houses and businesses, along with an African scene and a circus scene. There is a bakeshop, a flower shop and a house ready for Christmas, etc. Also featured are pictures, Indian carvings and paintings.

Of interest too will be an exhibit of about 150 1/24" scale automobiles, just so there's something for everyone.

While Roy did most of the work on the museum, Carol did the bookkeeping, design, layout and paperwork. From May to September each year, they work together to provide an interesting and exciting place for people to visit at 57 Fourth Avenue West, Cardston.