Visiting carver crafts totem heads

While more commonly Wrangell leaves a lasting impression on its visitors, one thought to leave his mark on Wrangell instead.

With the aid of two chainsaws and assorted carving equipment, Denny Leak spent most of last week outside Wrangell Cooperative Association's Cultural Center as he worked on fashioning out part of one of the tribe's stored totems.

Hailing from Kansas, Leak was up for a visit with his daughter, who in March began work at Wrangell Medical Center as a physical therapy assistant. While in town he sat in on one of WCA's traditional dance presentations at the Chief Shakes Island clan house, and was moved by what he experienced.

One of Leak's hobbies is wood carving and chainsaw art. He has done a number of pieces for charities, schools and public organizations, and was interested in doing something for Wrangell in that vein. After noticing the totems stored at the Cultural Center, he approached WCA tourism director Rachel Moreno with a proposal to commission a piece.

"As a woodcarver I was dazzled by the big, tall posts inside, the carved figures," said Leak. "I went up and was checking out the carvings and was talking with ladies afterwards, and they invited me down to the carving shed."

"I was thrilled to pieces," she recalled. Moreno got Leak in touch with WCA Board president Richard Oliver, who was also interested in his offer.

"He was eyeballing a log in the back there, at the carving shed. I came down and said this log was here for a reason," Oliver explained.

The wood in question was designated to replace part of the Killer Whale Totem, formerly standing at Chief Shakes Island before it was taken down in 2012. One component of the totem is a pair of outward-facing whale heads, which had begun to split apart after more than seven decades in the elements. The totem itself is still in good condition, and the tribe hoped to be able to replicate the heads and another piece so it could be restored.

After viewing the original, Leak offered to attempt the project. "I told him I thought I could get after it," he said. Oliver spoke with the rest of the tribal board, and members unanimously voted to give the woodcarver a chance.

Assisted at first by Oliver, Leak got to work, beginning with the cedar piece's base. The wood itself was pretty sizable, over eight feet tall and more than two feet wide.

"The tree trunk had been sitting out back for five or six years," said Leak. Making exploratory cuts, he prepared a circular cut-out for the piece's mount. "It took me four or five tanks of gas and a Stihl chainsaw."

Once that was completed, he set the wood alongside the original piece and worked it down to an approximation of its form. He added faces using an electric saw. Working into the weekend, a pair of mouths and new eyes took form, and soon the piece looked like an unpainted, uncracked version of the original totem piece.

There was research and a couple of mysteries Leak had to work through during the process. One that he unraveled was the purpose of a missing block on the original, cut from the chin of one of the totem's twin whales. Progressing further along into his own replication, Leak was surprised to find evidence of rot inside the core of his stump. Coincidentally, it ran right along the same chin as the missing portion of the original. It is Leak's theory that the conservation corps craftsmen who had built it had come across a similar problem, and had attempted to cut out and patch the rot. That core ended up eventually working its way into the top of the headpiece, a widening crack rending it apart over the decades.

Making a similar cut to his own before the end of his vacation Tuesday, Leak expressed hopes that he might return to finish the totem. Atop that piece there is supposed to be a headdress, complete with potlatch rings and adornments. Leak was able to track down an old slide depicting the completed totem, and plans to blow up the image so it can be worked from.

Leak explained the project had felt like a privilege, noting the pole's history. The pole his piece is replicating is itself likely a copy of an older totem, part of a process stretching back at least into the 19th century.

The whale totem itself was being stored at the old carving shed, next to Shakes, one of a number in storage. Seven more were moved last year from the boatyard into storage at the new facility, which itself had been constructed in 2014 with the intention of restoring aging and retired totem poles from around the island.

The WCA Cultural Center is also meant to host various other arts and crafting projects, as well as a place for local artists to sell and share their work. Since Moreno's arrival to the office this spring, work has been done to set up a shop at the center, with a grand opening slated for Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.