The many adventures of Wasgo the Golden Hill totem pole

Few residents of the Golden Hill neighborhood will remember one of its most famous residents. Wasgo, the 30-foot-tall Alaskan Haida totem pole, stood watch over the neighborhood from 1905 to 1939.

Golden Hill, located south of Woodstock Country Club and west of what is now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, was the estate of industrialist David M. Parry. He died  May 12, 1915, and in September of that year the family divided 100 acres of its estate into a neighborhood for the city's most prominent families. 

Wasgo came to Indianapolis from Alaska by way of St. Louis and a journey around the world.

Totems depict clans, legends and events of traditional Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest. Since the bottom of totems are  more visible, the most important image is on the bottom and often is carved by a more experienced carver. Wasgo was a sea monster, or sea wolf. The Haida tribe's  territory sits along the Gulf of Alaska near the border with British Columbia. 

Wasgo was one of 15 totems removed from Sitka National Historical Park by Alaska Gov. John Brady for his state's exhibition at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. It was Brady's hope that the totems would increase tourism, which in turn could improve Alaska's chances at statehood. Alaska eventually became a state in 1959.

According to "Home Before the Raven Caws: The Mystery of a Totem Pole" by Richard Feldman, Dick Crane, owner of the Esquimaux village exhibit at the World's Fair used the totem, which was broken in transit, in his exhibit.

Crane was a "steamboat captain on the Yukon River, a trapper, a miner, and trader," wrote Feldman. After the fair, he went on tour with a troupe of Alaskan Eskimos — think Buffalo Bill's Wild West show but with an Alaskan theme.

Crane returned the pole to Brady, who in turn sold it to  future Missouri Gov. Russell Gardner, a friend of Parry. Gardner assumed that the much-traveled and adventure-loving Parry would appreciate the gesture. Parry was not impressed, but his son, Max, became fascinated by the totem, so Parry erected Wasgo on the property in 1905.

David Parry's widow donated Wasgo to the Samuel Lewis Shank park near Golden Hill in 1928. The totem, riddled with rot, fell during a storm in 1939. According to Chris Carron, director of collection at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Parry loaned the remains of the totem to the museum, and it was returned to the heirs of the Parry estate in 2003.  

In 1996, Lee Wallace, great-grandson of Dwight Wallace, Wasgo's original carver,   made a replica totem, and it was erected at the Eiteljorg Museum in Downtown Indianapolis. 

The only evidence of Wasgo's existence at Golden Hill is a road named Totem Lane and a state historical marker.

Follow IndyStar visual coordinator Dawn Mitchell on Twitter: @dawn_mitchell61.