This is the story of the SIMMONS Totem Pole

I remember when I was in Grammar school we had a teacher, I don't recall her name now, that thought Totem Poles were cool. At least it seemed so at the time.

She had us research totem poles. However now that I think back on it I believe she was teaching us the ins and outs of the library and how it worked. Totem poles were just her way to get us involved with using the library to research our projects. In those days there was no Google. We actually had to get off our duffs and go to the library.

She made us write a paper about totem poles and to do a color drawing of a totem pole to accompany our report. That project was my introduction to totem poles and the last time I really paid any real attention to them except for a short visit our family paid to Vancouver, Canada where totem poles were pretty hard to miss.

Totem Poles in Vancouver, Canada

This story takes off years later when by accident I became involved with totem poles again. But first, a little background.

It is believed that Totem poles originated with the Indians of the American Northwest coast. Standing Totem Poles were found more than two hundred years ago when Europeans first came to the Northwest coast of Canada. Europeans first reported seeing totems in Alaska in the late 1700's and believe that totem pole carving is a little more than three hundred years old.

A Totem Pole is like a signboard. It is a system for passing on legends and stories from one generation to another for people who had no written language. Totem poles are really 'story-telling' poles but one cannot read a totem pole without knowing the story. Totem poles couldn't just be read. One had to know the story as related by the person who knew the story. Stories must be passed down from one generation to another or the story is lost. A totem pole is like a poem in that it hints at a great deal more than it actually says. Over the years many poles have lost their stories and are now known as puzzle totems.

My story and the Totem Pole's purpose is to honor my four Grandchildren but I'll talk more about that later.

Totem Poles are carved from straight tall Cedar trees. My Totem Pole isn't really a pole, it is a solid redwood board carved like a Totem Pole. It measures 18 feet long, one foot wide and four inches thick. Four feet of the pole is buried in the ground and fourteen feet are above ground. It took approximately three months to carve and it was done entirely with wooden mallet and chisels - all by hand. That's right - no power tools.

Carving a board rather than a pole offered some interesting challenges. Getting the proper 3D perspective was difficult at best - viewing from any angle except straight-on doesn't offer the full affect a round totem pole.

Totem Poles are given a name - my Totem Pole is named SIMMONS and is carved at the very bototm. It's the surname of the Grandchildren it represents.

I didn't start out to carve a totem pole. The idea came to me as an epiphany. But first let me give you some background. During the remodel of our house in the summer and fall of 2007 we tore out part of the front. Across the front was a solid piece of redwood 18 feet long. It was used as a shelf that ran from the front door to one wing of the house. The house was built in 1952. We toyed with idea of cutting the board in half and gluing the two halves together to make a mantle for our fireplace. We wanted to use as much of the old house in the new remodel as possible. It just felt good not to throw out such a fine piece of solid redwood.

When our contractor decided it was too difficult to make the mantle happen the way we wanted, we put the board in the side yard thinking we could use it somewhere else and just forgot about it.

This is the house where the totem board originated.

The 18 foot long totem board is the shelf just above the red line.

So how did my totem pole come about? One afternoon Diane and I traveled from Los Altos over the mountain to Halfmoon Bay in Northern California. Just before coming into Half Moon Bay going west on Highway 92 on the left side of the road lived a fellow who sold firewood to all the local people as a living. He was also an artist. He carved bears and other animals with a chain saw. We had been thinking about buying a bear for our cabin in Wawona, Yosemite National Park for some time but had not been able to find just the right one. Diane insisted on one with a face that didn't look like a Disney character or a cartoon. He was just finishing one that fit the bill.

While discussing the bear and paying the man I noticed that next to his ramshackle, dilapidated office stood a very old and weathered totem pole. He told us that he had carved it many years ago and it was for sale but he wasn't sure he wanted to part with it.

It was at that moment that I knew what I was going to do with the redwood board. It was going to become the Simmons totem pole.

Before leaving I took some pictures and the next day I started researching totem poles in the library and on the web. The following day I had my idea and a story. I put the board up on sawhorses in the garage and cleaned it up. It still had several layers of the different paint colors of the house from over many years. I decided not to strip it but just carve it as is.

The story for the Simmons totem pole is as follows. It is a tribute to the Simmons Grandchildren. We, my wife Diane, have four Grandchildren and it doesn't look like there will be any more so it is fitting that they be represented on the SIMMONS Totem pole. As the eldest Simmons and the patriarch I will be the support beneath them. That meant there would be five characters to be carved.

Twins Alex and Zoe in front with Cam and Meghan.

A Totem Pole is always read from the top to the bottom. It is also the order in which the pole is carved. This is true of my Totem pole too!

First I needed to decide on the four images I would use to represent each Grandchild. Then I would need to decide their order from top to bottom. I decided that since Meghan was the oldest that she should be on top followed by the twins (Alex & Zoe) and Cameron on the bottom in order of their age. It turns out that although the twins are identical they we born a day apart and Alex is the oldest so she follows Meghan on the pole. Meghan was eleven and the other three were seven.

Now it was important to associate each grandchild with an appropriate image. Most totem poles use animals as representations and I decided that would work here as well. I decided on an eagle for Meghan, a wolf for Alex, a fox for Zoe and an owl for Cameron. I further decided to put me on the bottom supporting them all.

Contrary to general belief today, it was not always uncomplimentary for an Indian to be the "low man on the totem pole." As in my case where the bottom character supports all that is above it. Turns out that makes me low man on the totem pole.

I sized up the board and decided that I needed to bury about four feet of it in the ground and that would leave me fourteen feet for carving the four Grandchildren and me at the bottom. I marked out the approximately sizes for each image and drew them on paper.

With the board cleaned up, the images selected, it was time to divide up the space and transfer the drawn birds/animals images to the pole. This done it was time to think about the carving.

One of the toughest jobs for a totem carver is locating the perfect cedar tree. It has to be tall, straight, and with as few limbs or lumps as possible. In my case I already had the tree. It was tall, straight, and had no branches or lumps. It also had few knots to contend with, but enough to piss me off. It had come straight from the lumberyard some fifty plus years ago. It was covered with many layers of different colors of paint from the many years attached to the front of the house.

Following are some photos of my totem pole.

totem01s Whole