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Paradis’ totem: Family history shared

By Brenna Wiegand

Silverton resident Pete Paradis has been intrigued by totem poles since his early 20s, perhaps he thinks due to the American Indian in his heritage.

Carved for untold centuries by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, totem poles derive from the Algonquian word meaning “his kinship group.” They told the story of a tribe – like a modern day photo album, Pete said.

“We can look through and see somebody got married here; something else happened then; we moved there – whatever the story is,” he said. “The totem pole tells all of that.”

The Paradis “tribe” and their totem pole: Tim, Maria, Pete, Donna, Jori, Lilly, William (Pierre). Photo by Brenna Wiegand
The Paradis “tribe” and their totem pole: Tim, Maria, Pete, Donna, Jori, Lilly, William (Pierre). Photo by Brenna Wiegand

Drivers traveling on the North Abiqua Road are sure to spy the story of the Pete and Donna Paradis family, whose roots run deep at Paradis Family Vineyard, 17627 Abiqua Road NE. A tall totem pole with a cross at the top stands in a field near the road. If you visit the pole, please use extra caution and find a place to pull well off the road.

Pete’s own journey to creating a family totem pole began when he was a college student commuting from Woodburn to Clackamas Community College. Pete always drove with a man in the New Era region who created chainsaw-chiseled sculptures.

“One time I stopped to see the guy because he was carving something. I was just intrigued by it,” Pete said. “He told me if I wanted to carve a totem pole I had to start with wood that had been buried in wood chips or sawdust for a few years in order to cure. I thought, ‘I don’t have any property,’ but it just stuck in my brain.”

He married, started a family and in 1990 he and Donna bought the hillside property, with a home that overlooks more than 60 acres of grapes – mostly pinot gris, all of it now leased by Adelsheim Vineyard in Newberg.

About 10 years ago a downed giant sequoia inspired Pete to make an initial step toward his own  totem pole. He buried the log in a large pile of wood chips, where it spent the next four or five years toughening up.

One pleasant day about five years ago Pete had a couple of hours to spare and decided to unearth it.

“It didn’t look like much, but when we pressure washed it, it revealed itself,” he said. Now there was no turning back.

“Over the next four or five years all these ideas were just flowing through my mind,” Pete said. “A lot of thought went into what was going to go on it because once you make a decision, that’s it.”

Besides, there were plenty of more pressing matters at the vineyard.That is, until his son Tim announced his engagement.

“I decided I was going to have it done by the wedding,” Pete said. “So from about February to July of last year I frantically finished carving it.”

He started by carving a ring of round river rock around the pole’s base.

“My name is Peter and in the Bible Jesus called upon Peter to be the rock upon which his church would be built,” Pete said. “The name Peter means ‘rock.’”

Above that he inscribed a brick pattern; much simpler to depict, he said, due to its direct, uniform nature.

“It’s kind of the differences between my wife and I,” Pete said. “She’s very straightforward and I tend to be very erratic. The brick pattern is Donna’s area; her maiden name, Kraemer, means ‘bricklayer’ in German.”

A grapevine began snaking its way up the pole “because our whole life wraps around grapes.” Huge letters T, W, L and J are for children Timothy, William (“Pierre”), Lilly and Jori. Above the T, an M for Tim’s new wife Maria. Of course there’s room for grandchildren.

A tree attests to years growing Christmas trees. A Silver Falls School District logo recalls Pete’s service as maintenance supervisor there for 13 years; another five years with Mount Angel School District is similarly depicted. Northwest Oregon Realty Group appears: Donna works there.

“There’s room throughout the pole for other ventures,” the carver said. “Who knows what we might do in the future?”

Pete couldn’t carve the top until he, Tim and Pierre installed the 25-foot pole weighing in excess of two tons. They needed somewhere to attach the chains by which they hoisted the thing more than 30 feet into the air before bringing it to rest on a steel frame. Around it they heaped large round stones, echoing Pete’s carved renditions.
Paradis
The pole was up; they were elated it was over. All that was left was tackling the top.

“The Indians would put a large bird at the very top of the pole because it was their guiding spirit; the bird was higher than anything,” Pete said.

“Well, I’m not that good a carver, so I carved a cross because God is above everything we do here, and it’s everything about us – and it was easy.

“We used the forklift to make a box and hoisted me up there with my chainsaw and I carved the cross on the spot.”

As he’d hoped, the pole was unveiled before it came time for the bride to don her wedding veil.

Donna laughed when asked whether there was a big unveiling ceremony for the totem pole.

“Not exactly – I was just happy to see them get it put up without somebody killing themselves because it was quite a production,” she said. “They had a tractor with a loader and a box on it and there were chains swinging up there and it was – yeah, kind of crazy.”

She was also happy to finally get it out of her yard after five years.

“Pete’s creative in a lot of different ways and he’s an artist at heart so anything he attempts, I know he’ll be able to accomplish,” Donna said. “Sometimes it takes some time but he’s just pretty amazing at what he does. A lot of good thoughts went into it.”

“It was a pretty big thing for us,” Pete said. “It’s pretty important to us all.”

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