World’s Tallest Totem Pole Set for ’94 Commonwealth Games
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VICTORIA, Canada — Canadian natives will carve the world’s tallest totem pole to honor the 1994 Commonwealth Games in this British Columbia capital, games organizers said Friday.
They said the 180-foot pole, the size of a 15-story building, will be built from a 300-year-old cedar tree and tower 50 feet above a downtown waterfront hotel.
“The games are about excellence and we are striving to erect the world’s tallest totem pole as a testament to the native coastal nations of British Columbia and a legacy to the games,” said games executive Ed Oscapella.
Victoria authorities Thursday unanimously approved construction of the pole from a 200-foot tree found in a Vancouver Island forest by Salish Indian artist Richard Krentz.
Krentz will head a team of Indian carvers who will start work on the project in May. “He has searched for three years to find a suitable tree. It has to be cut down next week,” Oscapella said.
The proposal, however, has upset community leaders at Alert Bay, a village on the north end of Vancouver Island. Their 171-foot pole, raised on the Nimkish Indian reserve in 1973, currently is listed as the world’s tallest totem.
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