Largest Totem Pole in the World, Tacoma,Washington Postcard
From the metroparkstacoma.org website: In a small skirmish in the ongoing battle for prominence between Tacoma and Seattle, Tacoma residents William Sheard and Chester Thornes commissioned a totem pole to rival Seattle's. The pole was carved by Indians from the Sitka area of Alaska at a cost of $3,000 and presented to the City of Tacoma in 1903. Since Alaskan Indian totem poles are not allowed to leave their tribes, Sheard brought the Indians to Tacoma and paid all their expenses for a summer while they carved it in the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company yard. With its deep relief, in contrast to earlier poles with less pronounced relief, this totem pole shows stylistic influences of the Indians of Vancouver Island. This totem pole was claimed to be the largest in the world. When rot threatened it n the 1970s, artist and woodcarver Doug Grannum restored it.
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