A spontaneous community art project is growing at the Elliot Lake Fire Tower Lookout. Elliot the Snake, was already 17 meters long (57 feet) when ElliotLakeToday visited Tuesday evening, Aug. 1.
ElliotLakeToday reached out to the local resident who posted about the project on a local Facebook page to ask how it started.
Donna had seen a Facebook post of a similar project.
“I don't know where it was from, but the snake was called Roscoe and he was on a sidewalk. A lot of people in town were commenting and saying it would be a great idea," she said. "We should do this. I posted and said, 'I will paint the snake's head because I do rock painting and I have tons of paints.' And so, I painted the head.
“One day I was up at the fire tower with my dog walking around, thinking this would be perfect. It's not going to be in anybody's way. I happened to have the head and the first piece of the body in my car. So I put them there and posted it on Facebook and said, Elliot is up there. A lot of people had said Elliot would be a good name.
“Then people started going up and adding to him. I was quite surprised because I thought that might be too far out of the way. People might not want to go all the way up there, but apparently, they enjoy it. They think it's a great place for him.
“I think it is a good spot because there's a lot of tourists go up there and they realize that the community is working together to create this for people to enjoy, people to look at.
“And it's like not just one person has done this. It's the whole community that's involved in it. Not just the children, but adults and seniors. Everybody. Even guests that come from out of town can paint a rock and add to it.
I go up every couple of days and I'll take pictures of his growth and post it on [Facebook group] Elliot Lake News and Stuff. And people are commenting. They're all saying it's great they love it.
“I'm thinking it was good because I was hesitant.”
ElliotLakeToday asked Donna what other people should know from this story.
Donna replied, “It just goes to show that if people work together and come together as a community, that they can create something beautiful.”