A Greenbelt utility pole and its claim to worldwide fame has had residents scratching their heads and at times dancing with delight, posting and sighting stickers, noting the landmark on Google Maps, leaving reviews, cautioning against its worship and a myriad of things in between since March 2024. In this year’s Labor Day Parade, the Greenbelt Honk! Situation band entered with a utility pole float, firmly enshrining the pole in Greenbelt’s weird lore.
“Greenbelt Honk! Situation is all about celebrating the creative and weird fun of Greenbelt. The World-Famous Utility Pole and the Original World-Famous Utility Pole are definitely the kind of thing we want to play and dance around!” said Dan Gillotte of Honk! Situation. On a personal note, Gillotte said he practices “Pole-y-theism” and celebrates both the Original World-Famous Greenbelt Utility Pole on Hillside and Northway and the World-Famous Greenbelt Utility Pole across from the Library. The Greenbelt Honk! Situation’s pole represents both poles, incorporating elements from each, he noted.
The News Review has received requests for investigative journalism to uncover the origins, masterminds behind, and meaning of, the World-Famous Pole. The paper approached and interviewed a person we suspected of being involved in its fame. That individual declined to be named for this article and refused to confirm their role in the pole’s origins or fame. They did offer the comment that the pole is greater than any individual and whatever the idea for the pole might have been, it has taken on “a life of its own.” In literature, there’s a theory called Death of the Author (after the 1967 essay by Roland Barthes), which argues the meaning of a text rests with the reader, no matter the
authorial intention. The meaning of Greenbelt’s World-Famous Utility Pole seems, in this vein, to rest with its fans rather than any creator that might be identified. And fans it has, in fact, an entire fan club.
We hope the following timeline, based largely on documentation by a source close to the pole, who wishes to remain anonymous, offers readers insight into the evolving and strange phenomenon of Greenbelt’s World-Famous Utility Pole, or at least some levity.
March 2024
One morning, residents wake to find that wayfinding signs pointing to the Greenbelt Utility Pole have been put up all over Old Greenbelt. The pole in question bears a simple paper sign reading World-Famous Greenbelt Utility Pole. (This would later be replaced by a spray-painted sign.) Additionally, stickers for the Greenbelt Utility Pole Fan Club were observed around town.
At some point residents note the pole’s presence on Google Maps and begin leaving reviews.
April 2024
Controversy erupts when a landmark is added to Google Maps for the Original World-Famous Greenbelt Utility Pole, an alternative pole on Northway bearing the image of a stick figure holding a peace symbol. Google reviews are also left for that pole. Soon, stickers featuring the stickman and the words One True Pole are found around town. Some Greenbelt neighbors begin pledging their allegiance to one pole or the other.
Additionally, postcards for the World-Famous Utility Pole are discovered around Greenbelt.
May 2024
Booklets titled Greenbelt Utility Pole Activity Book are found around town. Activities include a word search with a coded message, coloring pages and an activity that dismisses the “peaceman pole” as being a false Greenbelt landmark. The purported authors are the Greenbelt Utility Pole Fan Club.
August 2024
Flyers appear around Greenbelt for the Greenbelt Utility Pole Observation Party with instructions to meet at the pole and stare at it for 15 minutes. The event is to be hosted by the Greenbelt Utility Pole Appreciation Society, who take pains to note that they “could not be more different” from the Greenbelt Utility Pole Fan Club. “No weirdos,” the flyer says.
On Saturday August 31, 2024, at 1 p.m., amid the 2024 Labor Day Festival, more than 60 people converge on the pole. One person had a custom-made utility pole T-shirt. Another had baked pole-shaped cookies. Various attendees invoke blessings, lead chants and dance around the pole. A bewildered courier arrives on his motorcycle carrying a package “for the people staring at the pole.” The package contains several T-shirts commemorating the event, which are shared with attendees. The event is interrupted by a group of protesters calling themselves IDOGUP (International Disciples of the Original Greenbelt Utility Pole). Their signs feature slogans like “Obey the Peaceman” and “Weirdos Welcome.”
Fall-Winter 2024-25
Additional sticker designs are sighted occasionally: “This Pole Fries Fascists” and “What if we kissed the pole for good luck?” There are additional reports of yard signs pointing the way to the utility pole.
April 2025
Several copies of a pamphlet titled “Is Your Child Worshiping a Utility Pole?” are found around Greenbelt. The pamphlet mimics the tone of “satanic panic” religious tracts and warns of the dangers of pole worship, a.k.a. “utilatry.”
An alternative postcard design is also spotted: “A perfectly ordinary utility pole. Greenbelt, MD, a normal town.”
Greenbelt Utility Pole Fan Club stickers are sighted in D.C. and as far south as Calvert County. During the spring, various decorations begin to be added to the pole.
July 2025
Readers of the Washington City Paper name the World-
Famous Greenbelt Utility Pole a finalist for the Best Kid-Friendly Attraction.
Bumper stickers with slogans like “I kissed the World-Famous Greenbelt Utility Pole and I liked it” and “I’m in love with the World-Famous Greenbelt Utility Pole, only God may judge me” are sighted.
August 2025
Flyers are spotted for a Greenbelt Utility Pole Lookalike Gathering to be held October 26. Attendees are encouraged to dress up in utility pole costumes and bring prizes to share with their favorite pole cosplayers.
September 2025
The Greenbelt Honk! Situation goes all out with their Labor Day parade theme: they build a utility pole parade float; several marchers dress as linemen and one participant dresses up as Miss Utility Pole, complete with sash.
October 2025
A Greenbelt Utility Pole
Lookalike Gathering is held on October 26. The gathering includes limbo dancing and visitors include Maryland State Delegate Ashanti Martinez and U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, who had been attending another event in Greenbelt that day and were led to the pole by enthusiastic residents.
