Second-year University student Izzy Walker lives in the Como neighborhood and constantly passes by a peculiar-looking, nearly all-white building.

“It’s like a sore thumb sticking out in the middle of Como,” Walker said. 

The white building, surrounded by the Brook Avenue Housing Co-op, is an old 230-foot-tall grain elevator with the words “May Peace Prevail on Earth” written in six different languages on it. Those who made the building call it a Peace Pole and say it is one of many.

Sara Udvig, the main artist of the Minneapolis Peace Pole, said the design of the mural was created in 2019 through a partnership with the Riverton Community Housing executives and Project for Pride in Living.

The Peace Pole started in Japan in 1955 during the Cold War and came to the United States in the 1980s, peace activist Melvin Giles said. The Peace Poles can be made from wood, plastic, steel or put onto a building by an artist.

The Minneapolis Peace Pole mural is reflective of the river and birds in Minnesota, Udvig added. Community members played an important role in the implementation of the Minneapolis Peace Pole with Giles serving as a keynote speaker when it was finished, Udvig said. 

“When we look at the world and elected officials, we are not seeing peace,” Udvig said. “We can look at our neighbors and we can look at our tireless community leaders and we see peace reflected.” 

The pole displays six different languages painted on it which include Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Arabic, Dakota, English, Mandarin and Spanish.

Udvig said the hardest direct translations to get were Anishinaabe and Dakota. 

“One of the most eye-opening realities was I could not find those translations because the people that spoke the languages are no longer around or were elders who passed on,” Udvig said. 

Giles said that while the languages have many differences, they represent “our humanity” and how “we are one.”

While Minneapolis has the largest peace pole in the world, the sister city of St. Paul also has a lot of smaller ones, Giles said. 

“Minnesota is the Peace Pole capital of the world,” Giles said. 

Outside of the Twin Cities, there are over 250,000 Peace Poles of varying sizes which include memorable places like Eastern Island, Antarctica and the Eiffel Tower, according to the WorldPeace.org website. 

The St. Paul Police Department is the first police department in the country to have peace poles in some of their district buildings, Giles said. 

The purpose of the Minneapolis Peace Pole, as the name says, is to promote peace, but it is not intended as a political symbol, Udvig said. 

“We can find a million things to divide us and be self-righteous on our own,” Udvig said. “Those are options. But so is peace and making peace for each other.”

Giles hopes the 30-year anniversary of the Peace Pole in two years will be a combined Twin Cities event.

“The Peace Pole really is to start people having conversations or to create a space where people feel welcome,” Giles said.