Featured Barney West totems ?

In the 1960's Tiki Junction of Sausalito Cal. was created by carver West. My father had his rail car office at the junction - this is where he wrote his second book. As a young child I saw totems being carved here and was mesmerized by this place... and remember West being a tough character.
West learned wood sculpture from the natives of the Marquesan Islands in the South Pacific. While serving with the merchant marines during WW II, West’s ship was torpedoed and he swam to a nearby island. He was welcomed by the friendly natives, and lived with them for six months until he was retrieved by a copra boat which came to the islands every six months. 'they took me in and treated me like I was one of them.’ Because the Japanese were approaching, the missionaries had fled the area leaving the natives free.'
It's a long shot, but does anyone know of his totems being out there still . . most were carved from redwood - these would be 50-65 years old now and could have held up, still surviving .

 

Great story! "...ship was torpedoed and he swam to a nearby island..." wow.

 

VERY neat story!!!! And I'm presuming, that's Barney West doing the carving?? I just hit a Google Search, and haven't checked it out, but looks like there's a LOT on Barney West Totems there................

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Barney+West+Totems?

AND, it looks like they've got him from 1919-1981, so not still kicking!

https://mytiki.life/creators/barney-west

 

Drew, your Dad must have known a lot of interesting people, with his adventurous lifestyle. And you have some great mementoes and memories because of that.

It seems many are inspired by Barney West Totems, but not by him. There are also mugs, etc.

 

Yes the photos are of Barny - he did much of the carving, but had assistants & there were other carvers works at TJ. I remember some really big totems . . like 30 ft. tall. I'm sure some of these still exists somewhere - like barns out on the west coast, etc. ?

 

Drew-We lived in Santa Rosa,CA back then.My folks were would-be suburban 'beatniks' .Our podunk town was abt 30-40 minutes from Sausalito.
My Great-Gramps (born 1864),saw Pres Lincoln as a babe-so the lore says. Well Grandpa Richard Quintrell (sp?) was the Master/Foreman of the Tiburon NWPRR Rail Yard 'bout a century ago.
Tiburon,Belvedere & Sausalito was a beloved destination when i was kid.
Your Dad,Sally Stanford,Lenny Bruce at the 'No Name' Bar,Spike,Alan Watts-'christ on crutches',it was a tad like Hemingway and Henry Millers Paris !
The thing about Sausalito and Tiburon back then was that all the economic strata intermingled-Beats,welders,poets,insurance peddlers,plumbers talked,drank and ate together.
People,real people could afford the rent back then in most of this nation-'This Land Is Your Land,this land was made for You & Me' as Mr Guthrie said.
Now economically we've gotten 'ghettoized'-rich/poor,etc.
The thing about a red state & a blue state person livin' next door to each other and sharing a beer,is the sharing & the TRANSMIGRATION (sorry abt the big verbiage & the caps) of ideas,of 'thought', sharing's part of the evolutionary process-we all grow/evolve from it.
P.S.-Drew,yr old man was a hell of a picaresque cat-battle Marine,sailor,actor-good lord He worked w/ Houston,Nick Ray & Kubrick !
Yr Dad would prob been happier staying a Mariner,but life gives Us what it does.Thanks for sharing bro,the treasures of our human narrative.

 

That does sum up Sausalito back then - a lot of creative people - economically diverse as well. Big money rolled in and the soul faded away. Some day I hope to cross paths with a Barny West totem pole !

 

I'll tell ya Drew,when all the boho creatives had to move out of SF because of Tekkies & Speculators-it was a very sad day.
Barny's Totems are mighty fine.Jus to be in their shadow,let alone their perch is a blessed glory !
You know,on Our Honeymoon (40+ yrs ago-God F@#%& Dam !),we stopped by a closed storefront(prob Sunday) in Sausalito & the proprietor had a signed cabinet card of Oscar Wilde just propped-up in the window(gettin sun-bleached ! hey it were His photo).
Prob best I didn't try to buy it,that'd be like gettin' a wisdom truth yanked to have to sell......(most,yea,not all of me mispellings mite b intentional-Ma Google constantly reminds me of Mine incorrect grammar).
I did sell an autographed pic of Orson Welles 20/30 years ago,still pisses me off i aint got it ! Absurd emotion-as if I could put it in my urn-'dust to dust' kiddies.
PS-You know who bought it,after I tried to relist the pic for more $$$ as My human greed kicked-Paul Schrader-Taxi Driver, Raging Bull ,The Last Temptation of Christ, Bringing Out the Dead.

 

I should've jumped on a plane,gifted him the photo & tried to squeeze a few drops of writing wisdom out of Him.
Youth-no pain and no brain.

 

Just mentioning - these are not totem poles.
South Sea carvings, or Tiki carvings perhaps. "Totem poles" in any case is kind of a misnomer; but the term is generally reserved for the poles made by Northwest Coast Native Americans in the NW coastal areas of Washington State, and by Canadian First Nations people in the coastal areas of British Columbia.
Still an interesting story.

 

Thanks for the correction. To my understanding, the vast majority of the carvings were indeed 'Tiki' - I read that some Northwest style totems were commissioned and carved here. I have no idea weather West signed his work . . . in the end, I suppose it comes down to find an owner of a carving who knows it came from T J.

 

Yes, in one of the links there was a photo of a pole that could be loosely described as Northwest style, though I think he still called it a Tiki. It wasn't a particularly good rendition of Northwest Coast style though - it is pretty hard to get it right without an actual apprenticeship to a native carver, generally speaking.