EVERETT – When city crews removed Everett’s historical 64-foot story pole in 1996, it was cracked, rotting and in danger of toppling in a big gust of wind.
The pole had been standing near the Totem Restaurant, in a tiny, triangle-shaped park bordered by Evergreen Way, 44th Avenue and Rucker Avenue, since 1929.
Though it’s been mostly restored and is awaiting its final paint job, it seems the story pole is no closer to going back up than it was when it came down nearly eight years ago.
Propped up on wooden blocks in an Everett Parks and Recreation greenhouse, the story pole underwent $15,000 worth of restoration.
It was stripped of its paint and treated with insecticide and fungicide. Rotten pieces of wood were replaced, and some of its carvings got new extremities – noses, ears and fins.
When restoration specialists examined the pole, they found that even fully restored, it would only last about 15 years if erected outdoors. Indoors, it could last 100 years or more.
“Basically, we just put it to bed here until we find a suitable indoor location to display it,” said parks and recreation superintendent Ardell Brandenburg. “We are always open with prospects that come up, but it’s really got to be a right fit.”
For a while, some story pole fans thought the right home might be the Everett Events Center.
“It was determined that it just wasn’t an appropriate site,” Brandenburg said.
Displaying the pole indoors will be tricky – its height is not the only challenge to overcome. It is 4 feet in diameter, and both sides are carved with symbols.
“We want it to be somewhere where we can enjoy it for many, many years to come,” said city spokeswoman Kate Reardon. “We want to be able to find a permanent location and make sure it’s on display. And find the right place for it, too.”
Tulalip Tribal leader William Shelton carved the pole in 1923. He chose the pole’s 16 figures, which range from an octopus to a bear, to represent stories. Each story has a moral, be it truthfulness, patience, courage, vanity or heeding the words of elders.
“I personally miss it because as an educational resource it was very valuable and unique. There wasn’t anything quite like it,” said Everett Public Library historian David Dilgard. “You have to leave town to find tribal culture. I’m looking forward to eventually putting it back.”
Dilgard said he used to take schoolchildren to look at the pole and discuss American Indian history.
Shelton’s pole belongs to the city and was commissioned by local children and service groups.
When Shelton carved it, he believed he was showing everybody that we may be very different, but we’re all the same, Dilgard said.
Shelton carved the pole and wrote its stories as a way of preserving his past.
“The white man teaches the children to be kind, good, generous, honest, brave; and the old Indian teaching was exactly that … then the thought came to me that it would be well to record these Indian lessons or stories so that they would last for a great many years, and so I set about carving the Totem Story Pole,” Shelton wrote in 1913.
“His life was more or less transformed by the need to be able to bridge the racial gap,” Dilgard said. Shelton believed that “the differences you see are not substantive – we’re all brothers under the skin.”
Another of Shelton’s story poles was cut up, and the carvings displayed in smaller pieces.
Dilgard said the carvings are easier to see that way, but he’s not crazy about the idea.
“There’s an amazing resource lying down up there. Maybe a few people miss it as much as me,” he said. “The ideas are timeless. The wood isn’t.”
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
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