Restoration of Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park near Foyil should be done by fall 2020

A years-long restoration of Ed Galloway’s historic Totem Pole Park near Foyil, Oklahoma, should be completed by fall 2020 and last a quarter-century or more.

Park Director David Anderson and artist Erin Turner described the project that began in 2015 during a Claremore Collective panel discussion last week, reported the Claremore Daily Progress newspaper. Route 66 Alliance officer Ken Busby was part of the discussion.

Turner began the project with the help of the Kansas Grassroots Art Association after researching the park’s history. The newspaper reported:

Unlike the original and the first restoration, which were done with a latex paint that has a 10-year life span, Turner used a mineral-based paint that causes the pigment of crushed rocks to adhere directly to the concrete like a layer of stone.
The new paint should easily last 25 years, and will only need a clear protective coat laid over the top every 25 years thereafter to preserve the striking colors.
Turner said one of her main goals in restoring the project is similar to Galloway’s main goal in creating the totem poles to begin with – to honor the lives and memories of the American Indian.
Her favorite thing about restoring the project is seeing the 11 years Galloway spent creating the totem pole play out on it’s surface.
“You can actually see in his handicraft and in the way that he was making the surface, you can see his hands ageing as he moves up to the top,” Turner said. “It becomes less and less detailed. And it’s one of the most poetic and beautiful things, I think, about the structure. You really see this man’s hands age as you move up.”

It’s been difficult for the totem pole park to land grants because it lies four miles east of Route 66. Busby suggested other ways for it to raise money, including donations and online marketing.

“If you think about Route 66 and how it was advertised, go back to 1952 for a second and the Will Rogers Highway,” Busby said. “They used to say, ‘You can see the Grand Canyon.’ No you can’t. You can’t see the Grand Canyon from Route 66. But it was marketing. It was hype. And still, you took 66 out there and then you get off and then you drove 20 miles and then you could get there.”
“Things like this fantastic Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park are absolutely part of that history,” Busby said. “It doesn’t matter that you’re right on Route 66 or not. Are you doing something interesting? Is it something that is cool? Is there a great story to tell? People want those, and they don’t mind getting off.”

Galloway built the main, 90-foot-tall totem pole between 1937 and 1948, though other structures were built at the complex.

The Rogers County Historical Society owns the property, and Totem Pole Park eventually was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

(Image of Totem Pole Park by Gail Lynn Rogers Tackett via Facebook)