show us your Barney West - General Tiki

J JohnFrumSF Member San Francisco Bay Area, CA Joined: Oct 25, 2023 Posts: 1	J JohnFrumSF Posted posted on Sun, Nov 23, 2025 8:42 AM in reply to Septumus “I would like to update some information on the Totem pole. New info has come to light. This totem was created by Barney West from Redondo Beach, Ca in 1962. He only made two, one was at Lake Tahoe in 1963 at a height of 22'. The second was the tallest Barney ever created. This one is in Weed,Ca at a height of 32'. He called them Tiki Totems because all Barney made was Tikis from the South Pacific. The one in Lake Tahoe is gone due to the elements. The one in Weed will be replaced with a REAL Northwestern Totem Pole. Also, there is no Totem like it at the end of the Alcan highway. Safeway bought both from Barney and had nothing to do with the towns they (were)(are) in. This Tiki Totem is also for sale.” I’ve never heard that Barney was from Redondo Beach. Everything I’ve seen points to him having come from Seattle. Interesting. There’s another wrinkle to this story. The Barney West Tiki Totem in Weed was commissioned in 1962 as a replacement for an actual indigenous Alaskan-carved totem, sourced in Seattle, that had been placed at that location in 1922. It’s still possible that there was an indigenous totem that matched the original Weed totem in Dawson City YT, although a quick Google Maps image search of the town didn’t make that look likely to me. Doesn’t mean that there might be a match in someone’s backyard or inside a house up there, something like what happened to the original Weed totem seems possible (detailed in the article below) https://www.siskiyou.news/2025/07/14/the-totem-pole-mystery-of-weed-california/

“I would like to update some information on the Totem pole. New info has come to light. This totem was created by Barney West from Redondo Beach, Ca in 1962. He only made two, one was at Lake Tahoe in 1963 at a height of 22'. The second was the tallest Barney ever created. This one is in Weed,Ca at a height of 32'. He called them Tiki Totems because all Barney made was Tikis from the South Pacific. The one in Lake Tahoe is gone due to the elements. The one in Weed will be replaced with a REAL Northwestern Totem Pole. Also, there is no Totem like it at the end of the Alcan highway. Safeway bought both from Barney and had nothing to do with the towns they (were)(are) in. This Tiki Totem is also for sale.”

I’ve never heard that Barney was from Redondo Beach. Everything I’ve seen points to him having come from Seattle. Interesting.

There’s another wrinkle to this story. The Barney West Tiki Totem in Weed was commissioned in 1962 as a replacement for an actual indigenous Alaskan-carved totem, sourced in Seattle, that had been placed at that location in 1922.

It’s still possible that there was an indigenous totem that matched the original Weed totem in Dawson City YT, although a quick Google Maps image search of the town didn’t make that look likely to me.

Doesn’t mean that there might be a match in someone’s backyard or inside a house up there, something like what happened to the original Weed totem seems possible (detailed in the article below)

https://www.siskiyou.news/2025/07/14/the-totem-pole-mystery-of-weed-california/

Post #817416 by JohnFrumSF on Sun, Nov 23, 2025 8:42 AM