PORT LUDLOW — Residents seek to raise money to restore the totem pole at Burner Point in Port Ludlow for its 20th anniversary.
“We’re trying to get the word out — the pole is in sad shape,” said Dorothy Kimble, a member of the Totem Pole Restoration Project Committee in Port Ludlow.
David Boxley, a Tsimshian carver from Metlakatla, Alaska who carved the pole in 1995, has offered to restore the pole for $3,000 to $5,000, depending on how much work is needed, plus the cost of supplies.
The community icon would not be moved; Boxer would restore it in place.
Boxley is an award-winning carver who has had his work displayed in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.
The Port Ludlow Village Master Association has pledged matching funds to help raise up to half of what is needed to bring the 19-year-old totem pole back to its original glory.
The campaign will kick off from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., Oct. 14, in the Port Ludlow Inn’s Sun Room at 1 Heron Road, during the 20th anniversary celebration of the inn’s opening in 1994.
Samples of Boxley’s work will be on display, and Barbara Adams, who created a Totem Pole Restoration Project poster, will be present to sign posters.
Volunteers will take donations for the totem pole restoration at the event, or they can be mailed to the Port Ludlow Village Association at 70 Breaker Lane, Port Ludlow, WA 98365.
Checks should be made out to Ludlow Bay Village Association—Totem Pole Fund.
The 40-foot-tall pole was carved from a 720-year old storm-felled western red cedar, which blew over in 1993 at Nolan Creek, south of the Hoh Rain Forest.
The pole was dedicated in June 1995. S’Klallam tribal members conducted a ceremony to honor the pole. Members of the Port Ludlow community joined in a pot luck meal to celebrate.
The six Tsimshian figures stacked in the pole depict the history of Port Ludlow, Kimble said.
At the top, an eagle represents the area before the arrival of human beings.
A bear represents the ancestors of the local S’Klallam tribe.
Two men with locked arms represent Andrew Jackson Pope and Frederic Talbot, owners of the sawmill at Port Ludlow, which operated from 1852 to 1935.
A lumberman represents the sawmill.
A beaver represents the building phase of Pope Resources LP, which owns and manages timberland and real estate in the area.
The base has six interlocking human figures representing the modern people and community of Port Ludlow.
Once the funding is secured, Boxley will build a scaffolding around the pole, and the actual restoration work will take three to five days, Kimble said.
An anniversary and rededication ceremony is planned for June 20, she said.
Other members of the Totem Pole Restoration Project Committee are Bonnie Lambton, Sally Hirschmann, and Claudia Avicola.
For more information, phone Kimble at 360-437-7637.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
