October 15, 2025

Peter “Wolf” Toth is an American sculptor born in Hungary, who immigrated to Ohio and studied art at Ohio University. Beginning in 1971, he created a series of large sculptures to honor Native Americans. His first was made of stone, carved into a sandstone cliff in La Jolla, California, a six-foot-high Native American head. It took him three months. His goal became to create a sculpture in each state.  Toth donates his time and effort to each sculpture, and the communities typically provide the large log or timber used for the carving.  The statues vary in size, with some of  the largest towering over 40 feet tall,  with most ranging from 15 to 40 feet. From the Winslow Mail, Thursday, January 3, 1980, Peter Toth carving a 3000 pound log Ponderosa pine to create this 20 foot tall statue. From Roadside Arizona He sculpted his second large contribution to his Trail of the Whispering Giants series, in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Carved from Kentucky red oak, Rotaynah was removed in the fall of 2018 due to extreme deterioration, but the face of the sculpture was saved and is currently in storage. Rotaynah Since then he has completed a statue in each of the 50 states, and in several provinces of Canada, and some states, such as Florida, now have more than one sculpture. His mission was completed in May 1988, when he finished sculpture #58 in Hawaii. Instead of a Native American figure, like the other Whispering Giants, Toth opted to carve a statue of a Polynesian for the Hawaiian islands. That statue has since decayed, I first discovered a Whispering Giant in a recent trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where I encountered Enisketomp, standing beside Highway 3, Exit 5, in front of a McDonald’s of all places. Carved in 1983, this giant is named from the Wampanoag word for “human being” and is designated as a gift to the people of Massachusetts. Enisketomp. Wikimedia “I study the Indians of the area, then visualize an Indian within the log. It is a composite of all the native people of the state.”  A quote from Peter Toth. This Whispering Giant is pictured on a postcard, dedicated in October 0f 1981. The material is Sitka spruce and the Lakota Sioux Nation contributed to the sculpture. “I study the Indians of the area, then visualize an Indian within the log. It is a composite of all the native people of the state.”  A quote from Peter Toth. Seneca, found in Seneca, Mercer County, Pennsylvania (Wikipedia) On Gwe Ohn Whe, New York (Wikipedia) Calostimucu, Punta Gorda, Florida (Wikipedia)                                  Peter Toth 0 0