The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan, by W. B. Laughead

Title: The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan

As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North Woods from Maine to California; Collected from Various Sources and Embellished for Publication

Author: W. B. Laughead

Release Date: June 28, 2010 [eBook #32994]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARVELOUS EXPLOITS OF PAUL BUNYAN***

E-text prepared by David Edwards, Ernest Schaal,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from scanned images of public domain material generously made available by
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The Marvelous Exploits of

Paul Bunyan

AS TOLD IN THE CAMPS
OF THE WHITE PINE LUMBERMEN FOR
GENERATIONS

DURING WHICH TIME THE LOGGERS
HAVE PIONEERED THE WAY THROUGH
THE NORTH WOODS
FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA

Collected from Various Sources and
Embellished for Publication

Text and Illustrations
By
W. B. Laughead

Published for the Amusement
of our Friends by

The RED RIVER LUMBER COMPANY

MINNEAPOLIS, WESTWOOD, CAL., CHICAGO,
LOS ANGELES -:- SAN FRANCISCO

NINETEEN TWENTY-TWO

PAUL Bunyan is the hero of lumbercamp whoppers that have been handed down for generations. These stories, never heard outside the haunts of the lumberjack until recent years, are now being collected by learned educators and literary authorities who declare that Paul Bunyan is "the only American myth."

The best authorities never recounted Paul Bunyan's exploits in narrative form. They made their statements more impressive by dropping them casually, in an off hand way, as if in reference to actual events of common knowledge. To over awe the greenhorn in the bunkshanty, or the paper-collar stiffs and home guards in the saloons, a group of lumberjacks would remember meeting each other in the camps of Paul Bunyan. With painful accuracy they established the exact time and place, "on the Big Onion the winter of the blue snow" or "at Shot Gunderson's camp on the Tadpole the year of the sourdough drive." They elaborated on the old themes and new stories were born in lying contests where the heights of extemporaneous invention were reached.

In these conversations the lumberjack often took on the mannerisms of the French Canadian. This was apparently done without special intent and no reason for it can be given except for a similarity in the mock seriousness of their statements and the anti-climax of the bulls that were made, with the braggadocio of the habitant. Some investigators trace the origin of Paul Bunyan to Eastern Canada. Who can say?

Logging Road near Westwood, California. White Pine and Old Fashioned Winters made Paul Bunyan feel at home.

PAUL Bunyan came to Westwood, California in 1913 at the suggestion of some of the most prominent loggers and lumbermen in the country. When the Red River Lumber Company announced their plans for opening up their forests of Sugar Pine and California White Pine, friendly advisors shook their heads and said,

"Better send for Paul Bunyan."

Apparently here was the job for a Superman,—quality-and-quantity-production on a big scale and great engineering difficulties to be overcome. Why not Paul Bunyan? This is a White Pine job and here in the High Sierras the winter snows lie deep, just like the country where Paul grew up. Here are trees that dwarf the largest "cork pine" of the Lake States and many new stunts were planned for logging, milling and manufacturing a product of supreme quality—just the job for Paul Bunyan.

The Red River people had been cutting White Pine in Minnesota for two generations; the crews that came west with them were old heads and every one knew Paul Bunyan of old. Paul had followed the White Pine from the Atlantic seaboard west to the jumping-off place in Minnesota, why not go the rest of the way?

Paul Bunyan's picture had never been published until he joined Red River and this likeness, first issued in 1914, is now the Red River trademark. It stands for the quality and service you have the right to expect from Paul Bunyan.

When and where did this mythical hero get his start? Paul Bunyan is known by his mighty works; his antecedents and personal history are lost in doubt. You can prove that Paul logged off North Dakota and grubbed the stumps, not only by the fact that there are no traces of pine forests in that State, but by the testimony of oldtimers who saw it done. On the other hand, Paul's parentage and birth date are unknown. Like Topsy, he jes' growed.

Nobody cared to know his origin until the professors got after him. As long as he stayed around the camps his previous history was treated with the customary consideration and he was asked no questions, but when he broke into college it was all off. Then he had to have ancestors, a birthday and all sorts of vital statistics. For now Paul is recognized as a regular Myth and students of folk-lore are making scientific research of the Paul Bunyan Legend.

R. R. Fenska, Professor of Forest Engineering, New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse University, an authority on Paul Bunyan, writes: "He is not only an all-American myth but as far as can be determined, the only myth or legend in this country. It is all-American because Paul's exploits are all accomplished on this continent and there is no counterpart in the Old World. The origin of Paul is as much a myth as the legend itself. There are some who feel that he was known in the Northeastern forest back in the early 19th century but the best available evidence points to the pineries of the Lake States as the "Mother" of Paul Bunyan. It is certain that he developed to the zenith of his powers in that region during the '80s and '90s."

Professor Fenska points out that Paul was a "Northerner" for when the virgin forests of the Lake States began to wane and the lumberjack shifted to the Southern Yellow Pine region, little was heard of him for nearly a decade. Noting his reappearance on the Pacific Coast, this authority discounts the rumors that Paul has