Michael Paul Smith, Founder of a Beloved Imaginary Town, DEAD @ 67

He was the founder, chief architect and mayor of Elgin Park, the most visited fake town in the United States.  The town, was set in the mid twentieth century and his carefully crafted authentic scenes was created with a cheap camera, model cars from that era, and micro sized sets built to scale.  

Flickr has a showcase of his town right here:
flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/

NatGeo produced a profile of Mr. Smith and his town of Elgin seen on YouTube.  

Michael Paul Smith was born in November of 1950 in Sewickley, Pa., a town just north of Pittsburgh.  He was quoted in the New York Times saying, “Elgin Park is not an exact re-creation of Sewickley, but it does capture the mood of my memories.”