Show November 21 1975 Page 9 Cache Valley carver has unique lifestyle by Kevin Burke As you approach the house you see a totem pole in the 20-fo- ot front yard Passing this and the house you continue to the outbuilding drawn by the scent of cut pine cedar or perhaps black walnut As you enter the man rises from his work and greets you This is not the home of a carver from the totempolar regions of British Columbia or Alaska He is Kent Peterson of Wellsville Kent greeted me and immediately began to tell me of the work in progress “This base relief is of John (real name omitted because it is to be a present) He was one of the mountain men at the Festival of the West His mother commissioned me to do it as a Christmas present” The piece is just beginning to take on distinctive features with a necklace of bearclaws standing out at this time Kent continues to an untouched log three feet in diameter and about seven feet long “A buffalo rancher wants me to do a sculpture of this picture” Project- - - - -- The picture is of an Indian with arms outstretched above his head 15QBJHlouic holding a buffalo skull Some would find some deep social meaning to this but the awesome fact is that the log will be worked on for fifteen hundred hours At completion it will be a close duplicate of the picture “I started in the late ‘50’s with the forest service on a fire watch In order to get by I started to put wallets together and anything else that would help pass the time As might be expected one day I picked up a piece of wood and started whittling I’ve been doing it ever since” The totem pole outside Peterson’s home is twenty feet tall and consists of six figures Each figure has its own special meaning They range from Thunder-bir- d chief of all guardian spirits Eagle endowing the person with exceptional skill as a hunter and Comorant a spirit beneficial to fishermen whicflwlSt of the Totempolar Indians were The pole itself can be anyone of seven different types They are memorial grave figures house posts portal poles welcoming mortuary or ridicule-sham- e poles The Potlatch Ceremony The Indians of which the Haida was a major tribe would have a pole carved and then have a “potlatch” a ceremony in which the owner of the pole would give a feast as a tribute to all those who helped with the pole The last “potlatch” occurred in 1940 I of wood and started whittling and I've been doing it ever when the white man in his usual "One day picked up a piece Kent of who makes his living selling original wood carvings Wellsville Peterson wisdom decreed that it was too says ostentatious and was only an I would like to find a patron to set excuse to get drunk me up in a shop pay me a base Kent started out working in IF salary and let me create whathome factory Roy in a pre-fa- b ever I want to with the stipulation He and his wife moved to McCall that all of it would belong to him Idaho --P would like to east bronze " ' He worked as a packer-guid- e LIFE etc I hope to have a firewatch in the Forest Service fountain in the front yard by next car salesman and manager of a 2500 acre ranch A few years ago spring” This winter he plans to put in he decided to move to Cache Solar heating using black soda Valley and beer cans as his collector Cache heating air and passing it over “We liked the fact that this stones used as conductors He has also designed a house valley was uncrowded In McCall we used to get six months of that is arched covered with five snow and that was too much if I or six feet of dirt and has double had to travel On top of that the thermal pane windows at the north and south ends From school system was not satisfactory and we have six children By Mother Earth News he picked up build-fountains -- since" YOUR FAMILY NEEDS THE PROTECTION AFFORDED BY INSURANCE — There is a viable alternative to note insurance Shop around before signing up with any one Un-crowd- ed this time I had decided that I was going to be a full time carver Peterson said “I’ve gotten to the point where windmill the “The wind and the sun are free — Now if I could only find a way to beat Mountain Bell!” CALL LARRY BLOISE - 752-016- 6 FOR COMPETITIVE RATES ASUSU CULTURE ASUSU CULTURE ASUSU CULTURE ASUSU CULTURE ASUSU CULTURE ASU ASUSU I — ‘ CULTURE 3 ASUSU Expression U ZD co through Dance ZD co LU Q£ 3 U 3co 3co Ririe - Woodbury CULTURE modern Dance Company Nov 24 o FflG ASUSU 8 pm CULTURE LU C£ 3 ASUSU U 3 3co co V CULT ASUSU CULTURE ASUSU CULTURE ASU CULTURE ASUSU CULTURE ASUSU ASUSU CULTURE - |