Some people have a favorite fishing rod or gun by which to remember their father. Terri Adams and Rick Schmidt have totem poles.

Their father, Raymond Schmidt, who died in 2011 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease, was a skilled woodcarver who whittled and carved in his spare time. In 1967 he decided to carve a full-sized totem pole depicting his own designs, but reminiscent of the poles made by the indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest coast through the ages.

“He’d never studied totem poles — it just came out of his brain,” Schmidt’s daughter Terri Adams said.

The woodcarving project, which commenced at the family home on Second Street in Whitefish, was so unusual the Whitefish Pilot took note, publishing a front-page story in August 1967 that declared: “Whittlin’ hobby grows up to major proportion.”

Schmidt’s first totem pole was carved from pine and immediately was sought after by the owner of a gift shop in Hungry Horse.

“Mrs. Blake spotted the pole in the backyard and offered Dad $100,” Adams, of Columbia Falls, recalled. “And then said she’d buy another for $150.”

It seemed like a good amount of money at the time, so Schmidt obliged, carving the second totem pole out of cedar as a companion to his original work.

When Vaughn and Irene Shafer bought the Hungry Horse Corral in 1982 about a half block from the other gift shop, the totem poles moved to the Shafers’ store, where they stood as decorative sentinels for decades.

The gift shop closed at some point after the Shafers died. Irene died in 2009 and Vaughn a year later. When Adams drove by the Hungry Horse shop from time to time, she noticed how weathered her father’s totem poles were becoming.

Adams’ childhood friend Jana Lauritsen (now an artist in San Diego) encouraged her to pursue getting the totem poles returned to her and her brother, Rick Schmidt of Whitefish. Adams called Realtor Bill Dakin and was pleased with his response.

“You’re in luck,” Dakin told her, explaining the building owners had sold the shop and didn’t want the totem poles.

The towering poles were part of the appraisal of the property and remaining inventory, however, and were listed as folk art for $1,100 apiece. It seemed like a lot of money.

“Mom was still alive then, and she said, ‘I don’t care how much they cost, just buy them,’” Adams said.

The sellers made a deal and Adams and Schmidt bought both poles for a total of $1,000.

Rick Schmidt opted to keep his totem pole in its original condition and has it displayed at his home near Whitefish. Adams restored and repainted hers and has it inside her Columbia Falls home art studio. It was a family project, with Rick’s grandsons, Maclean and Schafer VandeVoort, helping with the painting.

Adams and her brother have fond memories of the trip to find the pine log for that first pole.

“In a 1952 four-door Chevy he packed Rick, George (their brother who recently passed away), me, Mitch (a friend), three girls from next door and a dog,” Adams said. “We headed out for Haskill Basin. He cut down the tree with a hand saw and ax. The boys helped.”

Incidentally, Jana Lauritsen was one of the children who accompanied the Schmidts into the wood to find just the right dead tree.

Rick recalled how their father chained the log in the trunk of the car, hauling it home at 5 mph with it dragging on the ground.

The totem-pole adventure is just one colorful memory of a father who went the distance for his three children, they said.

“Dad was my brother’s and my best friend,” Rick said. “When we were old enough, probably 5 or 6, he gave up his hunting buddies and took us with. We packed a knife and a lunch and followed him.”

He recalled how the family would stop by the Plum Creek mill where their dad was a planer for years. “We’d drive to the planer door and he’d walk us through, over the top of the planer to the break room,” he said.

Adams remembered her father becoming an honorary Girl Scout because he was always helping out, building inner-tube contraptions for lake fun at camp and lending a hand with anything and everything.

“He was right there with us,” she said. “He was very instrumental in my Scouting.”

When times were tough, their father would figure out extra ways to make money, such as the time they made candle centerpieces with whipped wax and evergreen boughs and sold them around the neighborhood. Their mother, Darlene, was ever patient, they recalled, even when Dad used her mixer and silverware to whip the melted wax.

Raymond Schmidt’s talents were expansive. In addition to woodcarving, he made knifes, painted, was a floral designer, a gardener and a skilled fisherman with a passion for fly tying that earned him more acclaim in the local newspapers.

“Not a day goes by I don’t think of him,” Rick said.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.