Ed Galloway - Creator of the World's Largest Totem Pole
Of the many spectacular things to see around Rogers
County, one of the most impressive has to be the World's Largest Totem
Pole.
It was the creative genius of Ed Galloway, who developed the park as a
monument to the Native American. The centerpiece of the nine acre park,
the totem pole, rises from the back of an enormous turtle.
The nine acre park also includes Galloway's eleven-sided Fiddle House
that houses his hand-carved fiddles. Artifacts made by Ed Galloway and
visuals of the park development are on display in the museum. Throughout
the park are various sizes of colorful totems, displaying the Indian Folk
Art.
Nathan Edward Galloway was born in 1880 in Missouri and developed his carving skills as a child, creating mother-of-pearl buttons and small wooden items. After serving in the U.S. Army in the early 1900s he was introduced to Japanese and Far Eastern art while stationed in the Philippine Islands. After he returned to Missouri from his tour of duty, he began to create massive sculptures from tree trunks where he incorporated human figures with fish and reptiles.
Galloway's unique style soon caught the eye of Sand Springs founder and philanthropist Charles Page in 1914. The discovery led to a long relationship between the two, beginning with Galloway's employment as a manual arts instructor at the Sand Springs Home. He spent the next 20 years teaching boys woodworking in the Children Home orphanage in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. In 1937, he retired to the property where the park sits today in Foyil, Oklahoma.
