The "A Great Find In Southern Lancaster County" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Traveling along Pequea (peck-way) Creek Road in Conestoga Township, Lancaster County hunting for a few photographs of Amish farmers working in their fields.  Conestoga Township is to the south of the city of Lancaster and is fertile farmland that was at one time home to the Conestoga Indians who were an Iroquoian tribe that inhabited both southern Pennsylvania and northern Maryland.  They were also known as the Susquehannock or Andaste.  The Conestogas suffered heavy losses from disease and warfare after colonization, and those which did survive were killed in a massacre in Conestoga Township as well as in the city jail of Lancaster in 1763.  Any Conestogas that still remain can be found in Oklahoma.  I found two Amish farms that were being worked as I drove around the hills that lead to the Susquehanna River, but was not able to take any interesting photographs to share.  

The Native American totem pole

Then I rounded a bend on Pequea Creek Road and there along the side of the road to my right was of all things...a totem pole!  No way is this something from the 1700s.  The totem pole was close to twelve feet tall and could not have survived the harsh winters that we have from time to time in Lancaster County.  I saw a house about 150 yards away, but found no life at the home.  Took a few photographs of the pole and after returning home Googled it and found nothing about it except for a summary of the seven kinds of totem poles that Native Americans carved years ago.  A quick rundown of the seven would be: (1) Memorial - pole to mark when a house changes hands; (2) Grave marker; (3) House pole that was used to support the roof of a home; (4) Portal pole which has a hole in it to enter the home; (5) Welcoming pole placed along the river to identify the home's owner; (6) Mortuary pole which holds the remains of a deceased loved one; (7) Ridicule pole which was a pole carved upside down to ridicule a person.  The word totem refers to a guardian or ancestral being, usually supernatural, that is revered and respected, but not necessarily worshiped.  The pole in front of me today has four designs carved into it.  The top figure is a horned owl, beneath it is a male Native American followed by a female Native American and lastly what appears to be a wolf.  Someone did a fantastic job of carving the old tree that stood along the road.  I'm not sure how the coloring was done, but it could be paint or stain.  The totem pole was a wonderful find as I toured the south end of Lancaster County today looking for Amish homesteads.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The Horned Owl

The male Native American

The female Native American

The Wolf