By David F. Rooney
Rob Buchanan’s iconic new piece of public art, In the Wake of the Sternwheelers, is now in place in front of the Community Centre and will, barring benches and a plaque. be completed on Friday.
Manufactured with exquisite local wood and steel and designed and built by Buchanan, Robert Maraun, Rudy Magirena and Daryl Ross, the pavilion harkens back to Revelstoke’s early years when sternwheelers and other steamers were the community’s main link with the outside world.
“I really wanted to showcase our fantastic local wood,” Buchanan said as he and his friends worked to erect the pavilion on Wednesday.
And, indeed, the wood they used is magnificent.
It consists of almost 30 spectacular cedar timbers from Downie Timber and the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation, milled first by Joe Kozek Sawmills and second by Keith Starling and Take it to Heart Contracting.
An engraved panel about the work is to be attached to a rock and erected beside the pavilion, which will also feature benches where people can rest, read and meet.
This fantastic piece of public art cost $25,000 made available through the Tourism Infrastructure Fund financed by the Hotel Room Tax.
Buchanan said he likes the fact that the tourists who come to see our beautiful city and landscape are, in effect, paying to make it even more attractive.
Click here to read more about this project. Meanwhile, here are photos of the boys at work as well as historic photos of paddle wheelers in action on the Columbia River:
