Totem Bight State Historical Park, Thunderer’s Pole – Ketchikan AK

Description

The Thunderer’s Pole is the reproduction of a pole that once stood at Tongass Island. It was carved by Native craftsmen in the late 1930s at Totem Bight for the Civilian Conservation Corps restoration program. A 2013 Department of Natural Resources, Master Development Plan for Totem Bight describes the characteristics and history of the totem: “This Tlingit pole symbolizes thunder, and belongs to the Thunder House people. It depicts four brothers belonging to the Wolf moiety who were changed into Thunderers, mythical beings who live in the sky and on the mountaintops and create thunder and lightning.”