The Unitarian Universalist World, the journal of the UUA, ran a front-page article in the September 15, 1974 issue about our Totem Pole. Yes, the people of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign carved and placed a totem pole at Lake of the Woods Park. 

Church member Mrs. Stanley Stolpe found a downed power pole at the park and convinced park manager Robert Carlier to give us the pole. Mrs. John D. Anderson, better known to us as Jane Anderson, supervised the carving, which began in February 1971 and concluded in September 1972. The project was seen as an exploration of the indigenous heritage that, the journal article said, establishes, “a traditionally close relation between the subject matter of the pole and the place in which the pole stands.” Because of that tradition, the figures on the Pole are “related to Lake of the Woods Park, Champaign County, the State of Illinois, the Northern Midwest and Great Lakes region, and to the Universe.” Which pretty much made any critter fair game for the carving.

The carvers included children of the upper grades and junior high classes, as well as adult members of the church. While most of the subjects on the pole represent animals and crops, others are more abstractly derived from the local culture and UU principles. From top to bottom, the figures were: Thunderbird, Box of Lights, Owl, Raccoon, Strong Man, Skunk, Blue Sky, Violet, Cardinal, Squirrel With Nut, Catfish, Fox, Duck, Corn, and Low Man. That last figure was described by Jane Anderson as, “a simplified human figure that would not indicate any one kind of person, neither young nor old, nor of any one race, color, or sex.”

Our records also show that the pole was repaired and repainted in the late 1970s. Then, in 1982, a severe storm broke the pole and it was restored again in 1984. In the instructions for that repair, Jane has written this enigmatic note, “Joint between the two parts of pole. Will Zemlin was frustrated last May; his device would not cut the hole deeper, but we have not given up! Maybe we must join the two parts same as was done originally – but where is that piece of truck axle?”