Totem Pole Park - Foyil, Oklahoma, USA.
N 36° 26.244 W 095° 26.909
15S E 280529 N 4035250
The Worlds largest Totem Pole, & Ed Galloway’s Totem pole Park, has been drawing visitors of the Route 66 corridor for over 60 years. Located in Foyil, Oklahoma.
Waymark Code: WMM0CA
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 06/26/2014
Views: 10
The National Park Service - Feature Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park, on their limited list of Route 66 attractions. Ed Galloway's Residence and Smokehouse, are also part of the National Park Service, Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program.
From the National Park Website:
"Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park is the oldest and largest example of a folk art environment in Oklahoma; its construction lasting from 1937 to 1961. Totem Pole Park contains the original, highly decorated creations of Galloway, one of Oklahoma’s premier folk artists and significant in the “visionary art” movement. The park is located just 3.5 miles off the Mother Road. All of the art objects are made of stone or concrete, reinforced with steel rebar and wood. Galloway incised and carved the objects in bas-relief and applied paint to decorations that generally include representational and figurative images of birds and Native Americans of Northwest Coast/Alaska and Plains cultures arranged facing the four cardinal directions.
Nathan Edward Galloway was born in 1880 in Springfield, Missouri and began wood carving as a boy. He became proficient in woodworking and blacksmithing and obtained employment at Sand Springs Home, teaching manual arts to orphan boys. In 1937, he retired to live on the property now known as the Totem Pole Park. He constructed a vernacular Craftsman residence, a smokehouse, and a workshop (which no longer exists). He began to make violins, furniture, and decorative wall art. Galloway became interested in Native Americans and found inspiration in post cards and National Geographic magazines to construct totem poles in the park.
Between 1937 and 1948, he created a 90-foot tall main totem pole heavily carved with bas-relief designs, the largest art object on the property. This totem pole is made of red sandstone framed with steel and wood with a thick concrete skin and sits on a large three-dimensional turtle. The turtle forms the base and is carved from a broad, flat outcrop of sandstone in place on the site. The totem pole is hollow and ascends nine “floors,” with the ground floor measuring nine feet in diameter. The plastered interior depicts painted murals of mountain-and-lake scenes and bird totems. Native American shields and arrow points line the tops of the murals. At the very top, the cone is open to the sky." Text Source: (
visit link)
From the Roadside America Website:
"Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park is located on Oklahoma State Highway 28A, at a point 3.5 miles east of U.S. Route 66. The junction of these two roads occurs in the center of Foyil, OK. The park and its gift shop are open to the public Monday-Saturday 11:00am to 3:00pm and Sunday 12:30pm to 4:00pm. No admission fee is charged.
"The World's Largest Totem Pole would get a lot more eyeballing if it was along historic Route 66. That revered flypaper strip is scant miles away, but most Rt. 66-ophants are unaware of this impressive folk art attraction as they dutifully check off snapshots of the Blue Whale in Catoosa on their way to the Googie motel neon in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
Ed Galloway (1880-1962) was born in Missouri, fought in the Spanish-American War, and was on his way with his family to California when he took a temporary job in Foyil. He spent over 20 years teaching boys woodworking in the Children Home orphanage in Sand Springs, OK, and retired to property he purchased in Foyil in 1937." Text Source:
(
visit link)
Address of Icon:
21300 E Highway 28A
Chelsea, OK
74016