Tall Tales
Paul Bunyan may have gotten his start in the northwoods of Minnesota, but it was in California where the folkloric character became famous.
Just as cowboys had Pecos Bill – a fictional, bigger-than-life, character around whom campfire tales were told at day’s end – so too lumberjacks had Paul Bunyan – a tongue-in-cheek, giant-sized figure said have cut millions of trees and created Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes with his footprints.
So, when Alena Nicholas visited Bermidji, MN, the first town to erect a gigantic statue of Paul Bunyan, she had to send back these images of the trees Bunyan missed felling.
In 1913, when the Walker family, which owned the Red River Mill, moved its operations from Minnesota to Westwood, CA, they brought with them the north woods character as the brand for their new company, Paul Bunyan Pine Products.
Prior to then, the Paul Bunyan legend was little-known outside of the north woods. It had, until its use in advertising, been more or less a type of outlandish inside-joke shared in logging towns.
Red River’s advertising man and a logger, William B. Laughead created “Tales of Paul Bunyan” an advertising campaign designed to engage buyers and create awareness of Red River’s forest products. Thus, the obscure logging camp character, his blue Ox (which Laughead named “Babe”) and Bunyan’s fictional friends became set in American folklore.
Several pairs of larger-than-life Bunyan and Babe statues stand as so-called tourist attractions throughout the country, among them: one in Westwood, CA, another in Bemidji, MN. All point back to a simpler time when we were more easily amused and tall tales were a means of poking fun at one another and lessening the weight of work.
Just like Bunyan and his blue ox, Alena Nicholas found Bemidji’s forest to be enchanted. Presently, its maple, ash, beech, butternut and elder are peaking.
- Bemidji, MN (1,365′) – PEAK (75-100%) GO NOW!
