DCHP-1 Online

lodgepole

• 1a n. one of the poles forming the framework for a teepee or wigwam.

  See also: wigwam ((n.))  

  • 1872  (1873, 1883)  . . . twenty years ago the Sioux lodge-poles were the only signs of habitation.
  • 1963  Nineteen poles hold up this mass of canvas. . . . Cross poles between the lodge poles serve as hanging racks.

• 1b n. Obs. the dwelling itself.

  • 1873  (1904)  The beaver brought many a white man's scalp to the red man's lodge-pole; and many a red man's life went out with the beaver's

• 2 n. Pacific Coast one of several posts supporting the framework of an Indian building, often carved and decorated to symbolize identification with a certain clan or family.

  See also: house-post  

  • 1885  The decorations of the Haida lodge-poles admit at times of a much more homely interpretation.

• 3 n. a slim, straight pine, Pinus contorta var. latifolia, common in the Rocky Mountain region, so called because the young trees make good lodgepoles.

  See also: lodgepole pine  

  • 1936  . . . he passed rapidly through the storm-twisted balsams, the squat spruces hugging the ground, and lodgepoles gnarled and stunted. . . .
  • 1955  These [cones] may remain attached to the tree for several years, a factor which permits of burnt-over areas of Lodgepole woodland being quickly re-forested.