SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
What started with a single home has turned into a community of almost 100 buildings.

Wes Jones stands in front of the miniature town – Jonesville – that he and his wife have created over years of collecting. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo

The miniature town of Jonesville - a community complete with five churches, a bingo hall, pool hall, casino, train station and even the Jonesville International Airport complete with Helipad – has been an ongoing project for one Yellowknife couple.

"There's little stories all over the place in there," said Wes Jones, the Yellowknifer who created the town with his wife Maureen.

After a neighbour gave the couple the first miniature house - a plane white sturcture with glowing windows - six years ago, they have been shopping 12 months a year to find new additions to Jonesville, which Jones now estimates is worth about $12,000.

"It's constant," Jones said. "It all started with that one house and then I'd be walking into the store and see a man or a car (figure) and think "That would go nice."...and then it just exploded!"

The village, which is set up on a group of tables in Jones' den and fitted with a starry backdrop, takes the family about three weeks to set up – three days of which are spent simply bringing the items into the house from the storage area outside.

"You would not believe what goes into that just for work. You have to get 14-inch extensions made for tables, we've got a sofa table at the end for the ski hill...it's crazy," said Jones.

And it's never set up the same each year. With each new year, Jones designs it differently, and each new set up brings a whole new wealth of stories. The mini train track busted on him this year so Jones improvised and created a train derailment on the track, inspired by the numerous derailments across the world this year.

There is also a single house in the town that's not lit up, because it no longer works, so Jones placed a power crew outside the house fixing the power lines.

Some of the stories are more personal.

"I really wanted to be into heavy equipment when I was younger so you see tractor trailers all over the place," said Jones, who said he puts a personal spin on the town each year.

"It's my childish imagination – you have to have some part of kid in you to put everything together."

He's an amateur photographer and so near one of the churches a wedding is taking place, complete with a limo. The casino and pool hall represent hobbies of his, and the bingo hall is for his wife, while the Post office is to honour his mother-in-law, Myrtle Flett, who has worked with Canada Post for 58 years.

But why does Jones spend so much time putting the village together and thinking up different scenarios?

"There's a lot of frustration but once it's done it's just worth it," he said. "I have every night booked up this week for people to come and look at it."

He especially loves it when kids come by to see the village, such as his nephew, who wants to play with the miniature cars so badly but knows the village is off limits once completed.

"It feels great, the more kids the better, kids just stand there and look in awe."

And even amid consideration of making this his last year creating the village, Jones doesn't think he's quite finished yet.

"I saw a lot of nice houses in Edmonton," he said.

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