As a child, Patrick Acton saw a television news story about a man who fashioned a model of his farmstead, built of ordinary wooden matchsticks. Although he never forgot about this interesting story, it wasn't until years later that Acton attempted building with matchsticks.
By 1994 when Ripley's Believe It of Not began purchasing models from Acton, he had established a fully equipped woodworking shop in his home, and was spending hundreds of hours each winter building models.