Entrepreneur Creates His Own Stonehenge

The more money some entrepreneurs make, and the more money they have to spend on their hobbies. For Edward Loyst, that includes $65,000 on carving and building with stones.

“Nobody is going to rush up and say, ‘Here is another Rodin or Henry Moore. But it’s interesting to build something that people will wonder in 1,000 years, ‘What was that and who built it?’” says Mr. Loyst, the chairman and chief executive officer of Franchise Bancorp Inc., of the installations, one at his northern Ontario cottage and two at a reptile zoo outside Peterborough, Ont., that is operated by his son, Bry.

These Stonehenge-inspired groupings are among about a dozen installations of rocks and stones that Mr. Loyst has created at both his cottage and the zoo.

Mr. Loyst has always been interested in art and stone-carving. He started to pursue his interest early in his business career by taking Wednesday afternoons off to learn to hand-carve stone. Since then, he has studied Japanese sculpture and learned to carve soft stone, such as limestone.

His stonework includes a series of primitive carved heads and masks and the family cottage, which he built over 30 years entirely from fieldstone he found in the area.

Photo by nyaa_birdies_perch

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