The Mount Carmel model created for the Visitor’s Center

by Matthew D. Wittmer

Matthew Wittmer created the model pictured below of the David Koresh’s 1993 building in the year 1999 and installed the model in the Visitor’s Center Museum on the Mount Carmel property in 2001. The model was exhibited in the Visitor’s Center Museum until March of 2006 as a memorial for the survivors. Texas State University-San Marcos accessioned the model in October of 2009 as they also have all of the research materials Dick Reavis used for his book The Ashes of Waco.

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Front of my Mount Carmel memorial model in 2000.

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The front side of the building again. Here you can see the gymnasium door on the right which was actually a single door, not a double as depicted above.

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Northern end photo left.

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Chapel is photo center on the south end.

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The northeastern corner of the building area had a concrete swimming pool built in 1992. The central residential tower was four stories high. To the north of that tower was a room used as a kitchen (sloped roof).

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The model on the stand I made for it for the Visitor’s Center Museum on the Mount Carmel property from 2001-2006. December 2000. Detailists might have noticed in some of my photos of the model on my web site, an additional residential room window has been added. This was because after I made it, I discovered I had mistakenly left this window out (floor one, north end).The actual building was less symmetrical than it appears upon closer study. For instance, I put too much space between the second story windows above the front door in this model. In reality, those windows had much less space between them when compared to the second story windows on the north end of the actual building.

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The front side of the building again. Here you can see the gymnasium door on the right which was actually a single door, not a double as depicted above.

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Model in the Visitor’s Center Museum on the property where the events occurred. Photo taken by Catherine Wessinger in 2004.

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Concrete Pool on the north eastern end.

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Survivor Clive Doyle explains where events occurred by using toy army figures.

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Survivor Clive Doyle outside of the Visitor’s Center Museum on the property in 2007.

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Sheila Martin’s room was at the top of the three story tower at photo right.

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Some older pics of the model taken in 2000 before installing it in the Visitor’s Center Museum.

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South end.

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Chapel windows and roof where agents climbed with ladders on the day of the raid.

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The clamp lights eerily resemble the lights during the siege.

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The chapel side with gymnasium from the back side view on the old model stand. April 1999

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With the model. November 1999

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Exhibition at the Sheldon Memorial Art Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska. My model was exhibited in two locations in Lincoln prior to it’s six year exhibit on the Mount Carmel property east of Waco, Texas. The stand I created here ensured that people saw the building at eye level so it would appear similar to photos taken of the actual building. Spring 2000

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With the installation at the Sheldon in Lincoln, Nebraska.