Totem Poles

The Yaadaas Crest Pole on a wintery evening at sunset.

NPS Photo/ Cinnamon Dockham

The park's visitor center and trails contain several different types of poles:

• House posts, which were carved as support poles of Tlingit and Haida houses;
• Frontal poles, which were placed against or near the front of a house; and
• Detached poles, which were place anywhere in or near villages.

They generally convey the ancestry (crest poles) or history (history poles) of a particular clan, folklore or real-life experiences (legend poles), or commemorate a person of importance (memorial/mortuary poles).

Learn more about the history of poles in the park on these pages:

• The Poles of Historic "Totem Park"
• The Missing Poles
• Re-Carving the Waasgo Legend Pole in 2021