Old Witch totem pole

About

The Old Witch or Wasgo totem pole is a Kaigani Haida totem pole in Juneau, Alaska. Carved c. 1880 by Dwight Wallace and originally erected in Sukkwan, a village on Prince of Wales Island, the totem pole was moved to Juneau in the 1920s after it was purchased by Dr. Robert Simpson, and installed outside his and his wife's gift shop. The Simpson family donated the pole to the City of Juneau in the 1940s, who installed it outside the Juneau Memorial Library in 1954. After a 1969 survey found that the pole had been damaged from its life outdoors, the city took it down in 1970 and moved it inside. They loaned, and later gave, the Old Witch pole to the State of Alaska, where it forms part of the Alaska State Museum collection. The state installed the totem pole inside the atrium of the State Office Building in 1977.