2026 - 35 Totem Pole Park, Foyil, Oklahoma

Nathan Ed Galloway and a Friendship That Spanned Generations

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 35 of 2026

Prompt: A Spot on the Map

Over the years, Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole became something of a pilgrimage spot for our family. Leonard was photographed there with Ed; later generations returned, too. I have photographs of my parents and extended family there, my father with Mom’s great-nephew, me with my great-niece—and now, once again, my husband, Bud, standing near the Totem Pole.

July 31, 2012 - Libby Russell and great niece Jessie Hart at my favorite spot in the park, the turtle's head carved out of stone. Click image for larger view. 

Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park features a 90-foot concrete totem pole that towers over a vivid array of colorful folk art. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NR99000354), the park contains four totems, two ornate concrete picnic tables with animal-form seats, a barbecue and four sets of animal-form gateposts and an eleven-sided fiddle house.

Ed Galloway and Leonard Nolen on one side of the eleven-sided fiddle house,
Totem Pole Park, Foyil, Oklahoma. 
Click to view larger image. 

So why have generations of the Nolen family been drawn to this “spot on the map”?

Both of my Nolen grandparents, Leonard and his wife Elizabeth, were raised in the Sand Springs Home. In fact, Leonard was the first child taken in by its founder, Charles Page. Mr. Galloway, as we always referred to him, was the manual arts instructor at the Sand Springs Home from 1916 until his retirement in 1938. Leonard would have been 19 years old when Mr. Galloway came to the Home. I don’t know if Leonard was still living there then, but he certainly stayed involved with it, working for the Sand Springs Railway, which was owned and operated by the Home.

Click to view larger image. Ed and Villie Galloway with Elizabeth and Leonard Nolen and their friends Irene and Lon Alcorn at Totem Pole Park, summer 1950.
Click image for larger view.

The friendship between Leonard and Mr. Galloway continued into the next generation. Upon Mr. Galloway’s retirement and subsequent move to Chelsea, his son Paul, who was 19 years younger than Leonard, stayed in Sand Springs to finish high school and lived with my grandparents. In return for their hospitality, Mr. Galloway gave them an ornately carved large round dining table and seven chairs. When asked why seven chairs, rather than the usual six or eight, he replied, “That’s how long the tree trunk was.”

Dining table and chairs carved and crafted by Ed Galloway.
Click image for larger view. 

During a recent file cleanup, I opened a Nolen file that contained records pertaining to the purchase of 60 acres in Rogers County, Oklahoma. I recalled my mother referring to “Mother and Daddy went to the farm” in her diaries and in letters to my father. I also recalled going somewhere outside Tulsa County with my grandmother to pay property taxes.

I had been wondering where this farm was. Could this be it?

As early as 1932, Leonard was corresponding with Morris Schuman of Tulsa, expressing his interest in purchasing 60 acres.

November 27, 1936 — Leonard Nolen purchased 60 acres from Rogers County at a resale for $60: SE ¼ NW ¼ and E ½ SW ¼ NW ¼ of Section 36, Township 23 North, Range 17 East.

December 19, 1942 — Leonard acquired an additional 10 acres, SW NE NW, Section 36, Township 23 North, Range 17 East, through a Rogers County resale. He initially offered $10; after publication of notice, he was the sole bidder and purchased the tract for $71.

Click image for larger view. Image created by ChatGPT.

January 20, 1943 — Leonard corresponded with I. C. Heaton of Sperry, Oklahoma, concerning 60 acres for sale in Section 36. A drawing was included showing that Heaton owned 40 acres in the NW NW and 20 acres adjoining Leonard’s 20-acre tract in the SW NW. No response was in the file.

Tax receipts show that Leonard paid property taxes in Rogers County at least through 1953. By then Leonard had lost the sight in one eye and was losing it in the other. I expect that his wife, Elizabeth, likely took over handling things such as paying the property taxes and did not keep receipts in the file that Leonard had been so meticulous about.

So what did I do with this information?

Of course I had to go find the property.

Bud and I like to take Sunday drives, so on Sunday, September 6, 2026, we went looking for it. I used my HistoryGeo.com subscription to find the section, township and range, and there was a county road, S 4235 Road, that appeared to go right to the acreage.

When we got there, we couldn’t find a road marked 4235, but we found 4237, so we backtracked and guessed that the next road west was 4235. We drove to the end and talked to a woman who came out of her house when she heard us drive up. She said she had lived there for 20 years and didn’t know the name of the road. She also mentioned that she had 40 acres.

I thought we had found it.

Since I knew we were only about half a mile from Totem Pole Park, a place we have visited numerous times, I told Bud we might as well go see the Totem Pole again.

The family story is that Leonard helped haul the sand and gravel needed to make the concrete. The park is maintained by the Rogers County Historical Society, and since our last visit, interpretive markers had been added. One of them mentioned that Mr. Galloway’s former students from the Sand Springs Home helped haul the sand and gravel.

That was wonderful corroboration of our family story.

And now I have found another piece of evidence that makes the story even more interesting. Among the papers I had filed with Leonard’s Foyil land records was an automobile insurance policy for a 1935 Chevrolet truck. Leonard purchased the truck used on March 5, 1938, for $450. The policy describes its use in two wonderfully appropriate words: “local hauling.”

The timing could hardly be better. Ed Galloway began building the Totem Pole in 1937, the same year Leonard purchased his land near Foyil. By March 1938, Leonard owned a truck that he used for hauling.

Then, while looking through my Nolen Family photo binder for something entirely different, I noticed this photograph of Leonard standing beside what appears to be his Chevrolet truck.

Leonard Nolen with what is very likely his 1935 Chevrolet truck, purchased used in March 1938. His 1941 insurance policy lists the truck’s use as “local hauling.” 
Click image for larger view.

Bud Russell reading interpretive signage, Sept. 6, 2026.
Click image for larger view.

While we were at the park, we met Isaac, a student at Tulsa Community College. He asked if he could record an interview with us for a class project.

I said, “Sure, and you don’t even have to ask me any questions. I have a story for you.”

I’m sure Isaac thought he had hit the jackpot when I started telling him about Leonard hauling the ingredients for the concrete and the collection of Galloway furniture that had been handed down to me.

Isaac, a student at Tulsa Community College interviewed me for a class project.
Click image for larger view. 

When Bud and I returned home from our outing, I updated ChatGPT on our findings, and it was suggested that I check the legal land description against the Bureau of Land Management’s PLSS map.

Oops.

I discovered that I had been looking in Section 35, not Section 36.

Leonard’s land was even closer to Mr. Galloway’s property than I had realized. As I went through the file again, I found a plat drawing from an abstract company showing a grid of Section 36. Leonard’s property was marked with “L.N.” in each of his 10-acre squares, while two other 10-acre squares were marked “G,” which I believe stood for Galloway.

Plat drawing of Section 36, Township 23 North, Range 17 East, found in Leonard Nolen’s land file. The tracts marked “L.N.” represent Leonard’s property; I believe the two tracts marked “G” represent Ed Galloway’s property. Click on image for larger view. 

If I had found that drawing before our Sunday drive, I could have driven right to the property.

We had to go back! It was Labor Day, nothing much going on so I asked Bud if he was willing to drive back up to Foyil. He did not hesitate to say YES!

I had determined that the road on the west side of Totem Pole Park was the dividing line between Leonard’s 40-acre and 20-acre tracts, and that his property began about 1/4 mile from Highway 28A. Our van odometer doesn’t display tenths of a mile. We estimated that the property began at the south edge of the parking lot. The road ended about where his property ended. The most noteworthy thing was a beautifully shaped mature oak tree in the middle of a cleared field. There were a few houses, but with recent vinyl siding, it was hard to estimate their age. Bud noticed the remains of a concrete block foundation. 

Mature oak tree on land once owned by Leonard Nolen, near Foyil, Oklahoma.
Click image for larger view. 

In the 1940s Leonard had submitted a request to Rogers County for assistance in building a pond. The reply was that he needed to contact the county extension office at a later date due to lack of funding for the project. I had seen a pond on a google earth view of the property but it was not visible from the road. 

There is something I can’t describe about standing on property owned by an ancestor. I’ve done it in Sedan, Kansas, Huntsville, Arkansas and Sycamore, Kansas. It’s different from visiting a cemetery. It’s walking in their shoes and imagining their life there. All I can say is it’s just pretty cool.

My mother had written the names of most of the people in a 1950 group photograph on the back, but she had crossed out Paul Galloway’s name and moved it to another person in the picture.

Now I wanted to confirm which one was Paul. And I knew just where to go. Paul’s daughter operates Nelson’s Buffeteria, one of the restaurants we go to after pickleball at least once a week. Months ago, I had approached her and asked her if she was a Galloway, and we had chatted a bit about my connection. So two days after finding Leonard’s property, we went to lunch at Nelson’s. I was glad to see Suzanne sitting at the counter. I took her some of the extra copies I had of a few pictures and then showed her other pictures on my iPad. She readily identified her father in the group photo.

Front Row: Lon Alcorn, Leonard Nolen
2nd Row: Dot Alcorn, Ed Galloway, Ralph Wallis holding Storm Wallis, Sonny Alcorn, Sonny Nolen
3rd Row: Unknown, Donnie White (standing), Paul Galloway, Allen Alcorn, Tate Lane (an Alcorn son-in-law) holding Bobby Dale Lane
Click image for larger view.

Suzanne also eliminated the possibility of Paul in some other pictures I had wondered about. Negative evidence is good, too. She also confirmed her mother in a picture with my parents and Aunt Sue at a Totem Pole Park fundraiser. She told me a story about spending the night with Sue at the Nolen’s house on the Sand Springs Line. She said it had been wild staying up all night and she had so much fun. But when she went home and her mother asked her about it she simply said she had a good time and went to bed early. 

Suzanne also confirmed something else I had been wondering about. The stone house at the corner of Totem Pole Park was Ed Galloway’s home. Then, while reading one of the park brochures, I noticed that the park encompasses nine acres. That sent me back to the old abstract-company grid. One of the 10-acre tracts marked “G” appears to coincide with the location of Mr. Galloway’s stone house and the adjoining park.

Suzanne was still a little confused about exactly how I fit into the Nolen family. Finally I said, “My mother was Margaret.”

She lit up.

“I know Margaret. She was so sweet.”

Suzanne said she would look through her own photographs because she thought she might have some pictures of the Nolens. I reminded her that we are there every week so she can bring them in. 

Suzanne’s daughter Jody was taking it all in, at first standing behind the counter and then moving around behind us to see the pictures over my shoulder. She really liked the 1950s group picture so we exchanged contact information so I could send her a digital scan. 

When I got home, I found a sweet newspaper article about the marriage of Ed Galloway and Villie Hooten. I sent that to Jody, too. So now another generation of Galloways and Nolens have connected,

I think Leonard and Ed would be pleased.

Leonard Nolen and Ed Galloway, Totem Pole Park