Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Harlan Crow, a wealthy real estate mogul and GOP donor who’s made national news in recent weeks, has a Haines connection—he once commissioned a totem pole from Alaska Indian Arts, AIA president Lee Heinmiller said this week.

Crow made news after ProPublica reported that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sold property to Crow and was treated to luxury vacations on Crow’s yacht and private yet.

“He was a really nice guy all the way around,” Heinmiller said of Crow, who commissioned a pole to be carved after AIA was featured on the television show An American Moment. “Clarence Thomas was there and had his RV parked right in the way so that when the totem pole was there, we had to get him to move his RV. We had BBQ burgers and beers and were sitting around talking to them. They were perfectly pleasant.”

Heinmiller said about eight locals including Charles Jimmie Senior, Tommy Jimmie Junior, Tom Jimmie Senior and Greg Horner arrived at Crow’s property, named Camp Ridgetop, in 2009.

“Evidently wealthy New Yorkers built these estates, and called them camps, in different places. This was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post. She was some sort of heiress to the Post fortune. She built this place around the turn of the century. It’s all traditional Adirondack architecture.”

Crow had renovated the property and the Haines crew flew up to erect the pole and take part in a pole-raising ceremony, Horner said. They spent most of the time working to prepare the pole, but also toured the lodge, and drank expensive wine out of styrofoam cups, Horner said. Both Thomas and Crow wore Chilkat Blankets and Tlingit dancers performed during the raising ceremony.

“When we found out Clarence Thomas was there, that was kind of a big surprise,” Horner said. “They had driven there in his RV. That was their thing, driving around the country in this converted greyhound bus into an RV thing. He talked about changing the belt in it.”

Crow responded to recent media attention in the Dallas Morning News, calling stories about his and Thomas’s relationship a political hit job that was “factually incorrect and being written with a strong political agenda.”

Horner said it seemed to him that both Crow and Thomas held politicians in low regard.

“He’s super conservative but even though he contributes to campaigns, the whole thing, politics, seemed kind of distasteful to him, honestly,” Horner said. “When I was around, they talked about politicians like people talk about lawyers, like it’s a bad word.”