Peter Toth Carvings

I briefly mentioned Peter Toth in a previous post after seeing one of his statues in Bethany Beach, DE.  A little about him and his trail of whispering giants.

The following is quoted from an article written by Erika Papp Faber and can be seen in its entirety at Magyarnews .

"Peter Toth was one of 11 children, born on a peach farm some 20 miles outside Budapest, in 1947. His family left the country after the crushing of the Revolution and Freedom Fight of 1956. Peter watched his father whittle toys for his siblings in the refugee camp in Yugoslavia. That memory would become his inspiration later.

 

The family emigrated to the United States when Peter was 11, and settled in Akron, Ohio. His interest in Native American culture and history evolved into a very strong empathy towards this people who, like the Hungarians, were victims of injustice, and became refugees in their own country.

  

His series of monumental sculptures has been dubbed the “Trail of the Whispering Giants”. One explanation is that the mouth of each sculpture is slightly open, as if whispering. Another, and perhaps more likely reason, is that each is intended to convey a message. That is why Toth strenuously objects to calling his carvings “totem poles.” He gave many of the statues Indian names."

 Three years ago Les and I, along with our oldest son and daughter-in-law visited Cherokee, NC.  When we went to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian I was really taken by a statue outside of the museum.  I later learned it is of Sequoyah, the Native Indian who invented the Cherokee alphabet.  It was not until I went to Bethany Beach on Thursday that I had the pleasure of learning who the artist was.

The statue at Bethany Beach is of Chief Little Owl.  It is 27' tall and was originally carved in 1976, but was damaged by high winds in 1992.  The replacement was done in 2002.

This one is made of Alaskan Red Cedar and has a long life expectancy of 50 to 100 years.  The top depicts a bald eagle looking north and the back of the stature is carved to show the neck and feathers of the eagle.

A new quest was born.  I started doing research and learned that there has been one in every state in the US along with a couple in Canada and one in Hungary.  There have been a few lost, damaged and not replaced, but will be on a quest to see as many as I can.  There was one in Atlantic City, NJ, but unfortunately it disappeared and no one seems to know what happened to it.  One of those casinos probably took its place.  I think it would be a good thing to visit these statues as I travel and add as many as I can to my album. There are many in New England so these can become day trips from home.

Until next time..........