Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park

Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park near Foyil is one of Oklahoma's most distinctive works of folk art. Beginning in the late 1930s, retired teacher and craftsman Ed Galloway spent years creating a collection of concrete sculptures covered in colorful designs and symbols. The centerpiece is a towering concrete "totem pole" that rises more than ninety feet and is decorated from base to top. Despite the common name, Galloway's work was not a traditional Native totem-pole tradition; it was a personal folk-art creation inspired by a mix of imagery and his own imagination. Other structures and sculptures on the property reveal the scale of Galloway's long-term project. The site later became a preserved roadside attraction and is now recognized for its importance to American folk art. Its location near Route 66 gives it an additional roadside-history connection. The park is especially memorable because it represents one person's determination to transform an ordinary rural property into a completely original artistic environment.