Los Gatos, California: Korean Totem Poles
Cafe and store entices tourists driving Highway 17 with a row of carved totem poles done in the Korean style.
Casa Del 17
- Address:
- 22990 Santa Cruz Hwy 17, Los Gatos, CA
- Directions:
- Casa Del 17, east side, south of Patchen Pass/summit.
- Phone:
- 408-353-1477
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Just south of the mountain summit on Highway 17, 11 brightly painted totems are placed next to the highway, created to attract attention to the food shop behind them.
Upon closer inspection, I saw that the totems were not based on American Indian designs, but on Korean totems.
I talked with the Korean woman who ran the snack shop (which had many of a Korean variety) and she said that the poles were carved in 1992 by a Korean artist who was commissioned for the job. He traveled from Korea and also had the uncarved poles shipped from Korea to the site.
She didn't know much more about the poles, except that they were very common in Korea and that they had lost one of them on site to a fire.
[John Turner, 02/28/2017]Nearby Offbeat Places
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