Swiped totem pole returns to West Seattle park

Last fall, a towing crew rolled into West Seattle's Viewpoint Park, unbolted its approximately 500-pound totem pole, and used a crane to lift it onto a trailer. Seattle police stopped traffic, and the pole, about 18 feet long, disappeared down the street.

What bystanders and police didn't know: Nobody had permission to take the 34-year-old West Seattle icon.

West Seattle resident Charles Edward Jenks, 70, agreed to pay more than $20,000 to retrieve and restore the totem pole in lieu of facing criminal charges, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's Office.

Jenks' payment was split between the city Parks and Recreation Department and the West Seattle Rotary Club, which commissioned the pole in 1976, according to parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter.

The refurbished pole, with its carved depictions of a beaver, raven, orca and spread-wing thunderbird, was returned to the park Wednesday, with installers grinding down the bolts that hold it in place to ensure it doesn't disappear again.

"I'm really excited to hear that it's back," said Robin Young, the South Dakota-born American Indian who spent a summer carving the pole in the early 1970s. He said he'd probably charge $10,000 to $15,000 to make a similar pole today.

Potter said the Parks Department used about $3,000 of Jenks' money to retrieve the pole from Oregon, where police spokesman Mark Jamieson said it was found alongside another totem pole — this one missing from the Fred Meyer store in Renton — on a trailer parked at a senior center in Keizer, a suburb of Salem.

The remaining $17,000-plus was used by the Rotary Club for the totem's restoration.

Tom Wise, a Rotary member and self-proclaimed "totem locator," said "citizen sleuthing" by him and his father helped police find the pole. After Wise discovered the pole was missing, he grew suspicious and asked his father to call the towing company and see where they'd taken it.

The company reported the pole was left in an Oregon senior center's parking lot, Wise said. Keizer police Lt. Alan McCowan confirmed the recovery and said another pole was found alongside the missing West Seattle totem.

The Parks Department consulted with the Rotary Club to determine whether to seek criminal charges against Jenks. Wise said those at the club felt they were getting a better deal by having Jenks pay for restoration — which would have been hard to fund otherwise.

"Everyone agreed it was better to get the money than prosecute the guy," Potter said.

Donohoe, with the Prosecutor's Office, confirmed the office had reviewed the case and declined to issue charges. He said the case could have been charged as a gross misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. Jenks, being a first offender, would likely not have gone to jail, he said.

Attempts to contact Jenks were unsuccessful. He did not return telephone calls and nobody answered the door at his last listed address, an expensive West Seattle home.

The restoration project was undertaken by Artech, a Seattle company that specializes in packing, moving and restoring fine art. Project manager Roger Waterhouse and another employee gave the pole a fresh coat of paint after it had been rid of moss, carpenter ants and boring beetles that lived in it.

Waterhouse, a wood carver, said he noticed a while ago that the totem pole outside the Renton Fred Meyer had been missing. Jamieson, with the Seattle Police Department, said the company apparently wasn't aware it was gone. That pole has been returned as well, he said.

Young, the man who carved the West Seattle pole, said he will attend an Aug. 10 dedication ceremony. "It'll be neat to see it restored," he said. "It'll be a brand new pole."

Potter, the Seattle parks spokeswoman, said the department is happy to see it back in place.

"It's been there 34 years, and people have missed it," she said. "It's a West Seattle icon."

Carly Flandro: 206-464-2108 or cflandro@seattletimes.com