Foyil: Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park

Just outside the tiny town of Foyil stands one of the most extravagant pieces of folk art on Route Sixty-Six. Between nineteen thirty-seven and nineteen sixty-one, retired woodshop teacher Ed Galloway built a concrete totem pole that rose ninety feet into the Oklahoma sky, decorated with carved turtles, owls, and figures from Native American traditions. He also built eleven smaller totems, an eleven-sided fiddle house, and a pavilion, all on his own land, all without architectural training.

Galloway used recycled steel and poured thousands of tons of concrete over two decades, working largely alone. He called it a tribute to the American Indian. He kept working on the park until he died in nineteen sixty-two. The Kansas Grassroots Art Association later restored the park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains open to visitors today free of charge.