Start Year: 1939

The Works Progress Administration completed improvements on Torvet Saint Road, in Charlotte Amalie. The work included grading, curbing, and paving.

The park was designed along a main axis—Totem Road—with totem poles on each side, and a rectangular area enclosed with logs carved with frog heads. Leading to the square, there are two stairways marked by totem poles on each side. U.S. Forest Service Architect Linn A. Forrest designed the sixteen frogs breakers. In 1938, the Civilian Conservation Corps developed the Saxman Totem Park. The program was part of a larger U.S. Forest Service effort to employ Alaska Natives and conserve totems and Native cultural assets. Many of the poles that the CCC recovered from abandoned villages were found in an advanced state...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) carved the Yax-te Totem, as part of a restoration program that lasted approximately between 1938 and 1942. The program was part of a larger U.S. Forest Service effort to employ Alaska Natives and conserve totems and Native cultural assets. U.S. Forest Service architect Linn A. Forrest oversaw the joint program of the Forest Service and the CCC throughout Southeast Alaska. The Yax-te Totem, also known as the Big Dipper Totem, was carved by Frank St. Clair, who was a Tlingit carver from Hoonah, and two CCC enrollees circa 1939-1941. In the early 1990s, after it was damaged...

Located in front of the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau, the Governor’s Totem Pole was commissioned by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It was carved between 1939-1940. Charlie Tagook, a Tlingit carver from Klukwan, began the work, and William N. Brown, a Tlingit and head carver from Saxman, finished it. The totem stands at 31’-6” tall, and is carved on a yellow cedar log. The seven figures represented on it illustrate Tlingit legends. “Figure one on top is Raven and in descending order are Grandfather Raven, Man, Giant Cannibal, Mosquito, The World, and Old Woman Underneath,” reports Klas Stolpe in the Juneau...

The historic Bangor post office was constructed in 1939 with Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork, is still in service. As of 2018 the lobby retains distinctive lighting fixtures, believed by Living New Deal to be original to the building.

Stolte Memorial Field was constructed in 1939-1940 with labor provided by the W.P.A. Funding was provided by the Alumni Association and private donations. Town reports describe the project as follows: 1939: "The project has been carried on with W.P.A. labor. The splendid co-operation of the town officials has made it possible to push forward this work. Incidentally, this has given employment to many men who would otherwise have gone on the relief rolls and the material used has been furnished without cost to the town. Many citizens have been much interested in this project and it is planned, this spring,...

The Chief Johnson Totem Pole was raised in 1901 and restored by Native carvers enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) between 1939-1941. The carvers trained at the Saxman workshop did the restoration work. The restoration work was part of a larger U.S. Forest Service program focused on the restoration of totems and Native cultural assets. The original caption for a National Archives image of the Chief Johnson totem reads: “The Chief Johnson” Pole is a fine example of Alaskan Indian totem pole carving. The pole has been restored at the original location, which property has been deeded to the Federal Government...

The Halibut Pole is a Tlingit pole that honors the Halibut House people of the Nexadi clan. According to a nomination form of the National Register of Historic Places, the Halibut is the only pole at Totem Bight that is an old original. Relocated from the Tlingit village of Tuxekan on the Prince of Wales Island, the pole was reconditioned and re-erected at Totem Bight. It was housed at the park until 1970, after which it was relocated to the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan. The replica of the bottomfish (halibut) at the top of an undecorated post that can...

The Man Wearing Bear Hat is a reproduction of a Tlingit grave marker or mortuary pole from Cat Island. According to a 2013 Department of Natural Resources Master Development Plan for Totem Bight, the totem represents “a man of the Bear clan wearing a large carved wooden hat surmounted by a bear’s head. Such a hat was worn at a potlatch or other important occasions during which stories were told or dramatized. Charles Brown carved the first copy of this pole in the late 1930s. Israel Shotridge carved a second replica in 1995. “

A 2013 Department of Natural Resources, Master Development Plan for Totem Bight describes the characteristics and history of the totem: “This pole illustrates the mythological conception of thunder. A huge bird that lives on the tops of the highest mountains, the thunderbird, creates thunder by beating its wings, and lightening by blinking its eyes. The thunderbird was said to live in the mountains and come down to prey on whales. The whale at the base of the pole symbolizes the mountaintop where the bird rests before devouring his prey and it is said that whale bones can be found on...