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postcard image loaned by Reed Fitzpatrick
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One hundred
and ten years ago today, citizens of Tacoma stood around and gawked at a
spectacle—the raising of the totem pole whose fate the city now ponders.
But the city does so without a full appreciation of the circumstances
surrounding that event, thereby ignoring some very significant local history.
Sensitivity to native cultures, political correctness, and practicality combine
to create a controversy here, because the pole is rotting and no one seems to
know what to do with it. But, to my amazement, the most important part of the
story is the part getting the least attention, and that is the pole’s
relationship to the visit of former President Theodore Roosevelt.
See News Tribune articles:
In 2010,
skilled researcher and writer Michele Bryant and I coauthored a book titled “The
President They Adored—Washington State Welcomes Theodore Roosevelt in 1903.” (It is out of print but will soon be available again as an e-book.) While
working on the book, the fanfare surrounding the president’s tour of 17 cities
and towns in Washington, and the extravagant preparations made, astounded us.
Coming up with a totem pole taller than Seattle’s 60-foot model was typical of
the many, sometimes outlandish, ways jurisdictions vied for the president’s
attention. This totem pole, carved on the shores of Vashon Island, did get
his attention during a visit that included a parade, a lavish banquet, the
laying of the cornerstone of the Masonic Temple, and two 21-gun salutes. But
before I get into all that, let’s return to the almost frantic totem pole scene
the day before.
By the
afternoon of May 21, 1903, the crowd at the base of 10th Street in
Tacoma had grown to several thousand. Tense anticipation charged the atmosphere
as a crew of twenty men attempted to raise the approximately 100-foot, 15,936-lb.
totem pole—claimed to be the largest in the world—to stand in front of the
Tacoma Hotel. At any moment it could fall and splinter into pieces. Already,
just as the pole began to lift, a hook had broken off and done some damage.
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| Daily Ledger newspaper clipping from 1903 |
The Tacoma
Daily Leger reported:
“The descending
block made a dent in the figure of the bear man at the base of the pole, but
nothing but can be readily repaired. Had the pole been a foot higher at the breaking
of the gear, it must necessarily have broken in two over the supporting false
work about midway of the length. A second start and the strain on the five-sheave
tackle was seen to be too great, and hoisting was stopped and the pole backed
while the lower block was made fast to a point higher up the pole, giving a
greater purchase with less strain.
The
inch-and-a-quarter hoisting rope was run taut by twenty men with a smaller
five-sheave tackle, making the purchase require for twenty meant to hoist the
pole equal to ten bocks. The strain drew the main rope small, but the higher
the pole went the less grew the strain until when erect and towering to nearly
the height of the Tacoma hotel alongside, it took back-ropes to prevent the
pole coming forward of its own weight.”
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| Daily Ledger newspaper clipping 1903 |
And that
was only the beginning of the excitement that gripped the city for two days. Here
are some excerpts from “The President They Adored” concerning Roosevelt’s stop
in Tacoma:
~All of
Tacoma waited for the resident’s train that afternoon of May 22, 1903, with
citizens crowded into all possible vantage points, “… above the housetops, or
dipping from every window,” according to the Daily Ledger, a copy of which cost
a nickel at that time. Men swung their hats and women and children waved their
flags. A twenty-one gun salute fired from Puget Sound as the Commander in Chief
stepped from this train.
Soon a
procession rolled toward Wright Park with the president in his carriage,
sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, talking, laughing, smiling, and showing
his teeth. He stepped onto an elevated platform to address a sea of thirty
thousand upturned faces.
~From Wright
Park, the procession approached the Masonic Temple building site, so the
president could lay its cornerstone. The stand was decorated with bunting, and
a large American flag stretched over the president’s chair. Hundreds of Mason,
wearing their traditional white aprons, watched as Brother Roosevelt stepped
from the platform to the stone, picking up the trowel and placing some mortar
on its underside, his inexperience causing laughter and words of encouragement.
After a short speech and the traditional scattering of corn, wine, and
oil—emblems of plenty, joy, and peace—the Tenino sandstone cornerstone was
swung into place.
~The masses
cheered as the president’s carriage approached the Tacoma Hotel with many
following the procession along the guard ropes. The banquet reception boasted
Northwest floral beauty at its finest, with decoration of pink roses, Solomon’s
seals, asparagus fern, huckleberry, Oregon grape, white lilacs, kinnickkinnick,
tall palms, and rhododendrons—the Washington State flower. Outside the hotel,
dogwood and Scotch broom framed a large American flag draped over the doorway.
~The totem
pole captivated Roosevelt with its distinctive carvings and enormous size. As
his carriage passed by, he raised his arm, pointing at the pole’s features from
top to bottom and seemed to honor it by removing his hat.
~The president
admired all objects of beauty and fine workmanship, including an elaborately
embroidered silk cloth that was draped over his carriage. This relic, dating
from the 16th century and probably made by nuns as a cover for a
catafalque, survived as a 400-year-old heirloom passed down through the family
of Mr. Joseph Moore of Tacoma. Even in 1903 it was valued at thirty thousand dollars.
~A salute of
twenty-one guns was fired again the next morning as President Roosevelt left
Tacoma aboard the luxurious steamer Spokane.
It flew the dark blue presidential flag with its golden eagle as they
headed north to Bremerton, two hours away.
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| page from "The President They Adored" |
Considering
that a century and ten years is a mere blink of an eye in terms of history, how
quickly events are forgotten. Whether or not you are a fan of Theodore
Roosevelt, his tour through the state would have amounted to an unforgettable day
for the tens of thousands of impassioned people who came to see him along the
route, often climbing trees, even telephone poles, leaning out windows, covering
rooftops, and crowding train stations, just for a look. When he visited Spokane a
few days later, as our book describes, “… it was said that never before had so
many people assembled in the vast region between the two mountain ranges of the
Rockies and the Cascades, and no one there ever expected to see anything like
it again.”
I hope this
background information will influence the city to preserve the totem pole,
not letting it rot, but finding an indoor location where it can safely be
displayed. It represents more than a rivalry with Seattle. It represents a time
when Tacoma’s citizens felt a sense of unity, excitement, pride, and joy as
history was made before them. We could use a reminder of how that feels.
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| cartoon from Tacoma's newspaper, The Daily Ledger, in 1903 |
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