Chief Wasatch

A giant cottonwood trunk carved into a Native American head has marked the entrance to Murray Park since 1985, and the city has spent years trying to keep the wood from rotting. Chief Wasatch is one of the “Whispering Giants” by sculptor Peter Wolf Toth, who set out to carve a statue honouring American Indians in every state. The Salt Lake Tribune reported in 2011 that Toth, born in Hungary in 1947, worked with a chainsaw, hammer and chisel on one of two large cottonwoods that grew along the Jordan River near 4800 South, spent about three months on it and asked for nothing beyond food and a place to camp. The second trunk became an eagle elsewhere in the park, which rotted and was removed. The dedication was on 23 November 1985. The plaque says the statue is “sculpted out of a giant cottonwood tree in honor of Utah Native Americans” and names the Southern and Northern Ute, southern Shoshone, Goshute, Paiute and Navajo peoples. The Utah Historical Markers site’s own notes say that “Chief Wasatch” was not an actual person; the figure stands for the many Native peoples who lived in Utah, and the site credits the city’s mayor of the time with commissioning it. Its size is reported two ways: the Tribune gave 23 feet in 2011, while a 2024 Murray City Journal history of the park says 48 feet. Both mention preservation. The Tribune said the city was doing its best to keep the monument standing, and the Journal says the city has invested significantly to preserve it. Murray City’s public art collection page, as archived in April 2026, still lists the work. It stands in a public city park.