By CAPRI GAHR
Student Reporter
Rogers County in Northeastern Oklahoma is home to Ed Galloways Totem Pole Park. Ten miles northeast of Claremore and 3.5 miles east of Foyil. The park consists of eleven objects and one building that Galloway built in 1948. He died in 1962 and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
The characters that make up the totem pole include 200 faces and expressions and large carvings of animals. The base of the totem pole is a large turtle. This large turtle is a representation of the native creation story about earth being on the back of a huge turtle.
Galloway worked as a manual arts teacher at the Sand Springs Children’s home for over twenty years before retiring and starting Totem Pole Park. He is also known for his skills at making fiddles and many of them are still on display at his eleven sided “Fiddle House” which is currently the gift shop at the park.
