The Origin of Paul Bunyan
Aug 24, 2024
Jay
Folklore & Legends
An American Legend, a Folk Hero. Paul Bunyan is said to be the main reason for the shaping of the American landscape. But who was the man, what did he do and maybe most important was he a real person?
The man of 63 axe handles high
Some of you might remember this larger than life figure of the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan. With his double blade axe in hand and his massive blue ox, Babe, by his side.
Legend has it Paul single handedly carved the Grand Canyon just by dragging is ax behind him in a snowstorm and that he and Babe left their footprints behind so creating the 10.000 lakes of Minnesota. But even from birth Paul already was a special boy.
Paul was born in the northeastern American state of Maine. Paul was such a large boy it took 5 birds to deliver him to his parents. He was always hungry and his parents had to keep 10 cows to supply his milk, before he started eating 50 eggs and 10 containers of potatoes a day.
One day, on a cold day in Maine. It became so cold even that words froze solid before they were spoken, fires froze over and even the snow itself turned blue. When Paul went outside to see this unusual sight he discovered a small animal, stuck in the snow. It was little baby ox, who had turned blue from the snow and the cold.
When Paul took it home and the ox warmed up, his skin remained blue. Paul decided keep the ox and called him Babe. They became inseparable friends and under Pauls care Babe grew so big it took a murder of crows an entire day to fly from one horn to the other.
The tall tales of Laughead
Most or actually all these stories above use a character created by the advertising copywriter William B. Laughead. He used Paul for the pamphlets he created for the Red River Lumber Company where he introduced this larger than life character to the rest of America.
Laughead first heard about the character in 1901 while staying at a logging camp and thought this to be the perfect icon for the lumber company when they in 1908 asked him to create the pamphlets for the company.
His campaign however did not prove to be effective, because Paul was at that time more of a local legend, unbeknownst to the partners of Red River.
“There where even a lot of people in the logging business who had never heard of Paul Bunyan”William B. Laughead
Laughead later created a second campaign where he focused more on Paul as a standalone character, and attributed the creation of several American landscapes, landmarks and natural wonders to Paul Bunyan.
Real Origin of Paul Bunyan
The real story of Paul might be a little bit less mighty than those of Laughead. There is no real answer if Bunyan has ever really existed but the legends date back to the 1800’s where his tales were shared by lumberjack in the state of Wisconsin. They were a way to entertain and amaze visitors and newcomers.
The stories where told as if they really happened to see how much they could get them to believe, where older loggers would swear to have known Bunyan or his crew to add validity. Which in a way was genius. Because as a newbie, even if you didn’t believe the stories, what would you do? call a senior a liar?
The real stories of Paul Bunyan probably came from collective tales of loggers. So is one story that Paul managed to harvest 100 miles of pine from one tree. Where the real roots of this story probably came form something that happened more often because of logging section lines. Where loggers would clear for miles outside their permit without permission. Other loggers would not rat them out if they noticed and joke that they got it from a single tree.
Conclucion
Where Paul Bunyan is probably nothing more than a tall tale about a man who may of may not have existed, brought and kept alive to entertain and amaze. He is non the less an icon for American nature and an amazing story. I highly encourage you to find a read some of his stories for your self en see what this giant of a man has accomplished in the landscape.
There are so many stories I would like to share with you about this, but maybe that’s something you should find for yourself.
