Following in the footsteps of Paul Bunyan> Minnesota lays claim to famed lumberjack and his ox who made the land of 10,000 lakes

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Mainers have grown up for generations believing Paul Bunyan roamed the big woods of the Pine Tree State, harvesting logs with one swipe of his ax from Calais to Jackman and north to Fort Kent.

It was only logical that Paul cut his lumbering teeth in Maine. The big fella must’ve stepped off the boat along with the first settlers from Europe, found Massachusetts already too crowded for his liking, and headed Down East. There, after a distinguished career as a lumberjack for most of the 19th century, Paul semiretired to a life of leisure as a security guard for the Holiday Inn on Main Street in Bangor.

If pressed, Minnesotans might admit ol’ Paul may have spent a few summers in Maine, clearing a forest here and there just to stay in shape. But it was there, a thousand miles to the west in the land of 10,000 lakes that Bunyan called home.

How do you think those 10,000 lakes got there, Minnesotans will query, whenever the subject turns to what P.B. put down as his legal residence on his tax forms? Why, those lakes are the rain-filled footprints left by Paul and his big blue ox, Babe, of course.

Following in the footsteps of Paul Bunyan across Minnesota is as easy as connecting the lakes on a map, and a great trip for those who love the woods and American folklore.

Start in Grand Rapids, a town of 8,000 that is home to the Forest History Center. This living history museum teaches who really felled the northern forests and how they did it. While an indoor display details the region’s ancient geologic history and its peak logging years — 1890 to 1920 — it’s the outdoor lumberjack camp that is the most fun.

Lumberjack camp

It may be 90 degrees outside, but summer visitors are asked to imagine it’s winter because the real jacks worked in the winter when it was easier to cut and move the trees to the frozen river, where they lay until the ice thawed and the logs could be floated downstream.

Dressed in denim and light flannel shirts, the staff pretend they are jacks going about their daily tasks in the re-created camp, complete with bunkhouse, blacksmith shop, cook shack, wanagan (a floating office and cook shack), and massive logging equipment.

Visitors who believe the Paul Bunyan myth was created in Minnesota are in for a surprise if they talk with site manager Robert Drake. He says Paul Bunyan may have been a French Canadian who logged the New Brunswick forests in the 1830s. Still other historians say the name came from a mythical Frenchman, Bon Jean, or good John, familiar to French-Canadian loggers who knew English-speaking loggers. The English-speaking loggers translated the name as “Bun-yan.”

Travel on to Bemidji, Minn., (population 11,250) and the traveler finds the locals claim Paul Bunyan was born here because only their outdoors was big enough for the behemoth baby brought by five giant, exhausted storks working in relays to deliver him to his parents.

Now a postage stamp

On Nov. 9, 1995, descendants of local lumberjacks, dressed in jeans and plaid wool shirts, unveiled the drawing of the Paul Bunyan stamp, one of four U.S. Postal Service stamps bearing American folk heroes to be released this summer. One of the jacks, Earle Johnson, recalled that in 1937 his father and uncle helped build the “real Paul sculpture” standing on the supposed actual site of Paul’s birth. The sculpture is accompanied by a giant blue Babe sculpture.

Legend says Babe was a gift from Paul’s parents on his first birthday. According to the story, Babe was born white, but during the winter of the blue snow, when it snowed for 40 days and nights, the ox changed color in the fierce cold.

Both statues, registered national landmarks, are just outside Bemidji’s Convention and Visitors Bureau on the shores of Lake Bemidji, ranked by readers of Conde Nast magazine as one of America’s 100 most beautiful lakes. Displayed inside the visitors bureau are items Paul owned — boxer shorts, a fly-swatter, back-scratcher, toothbrush, and even his clipped fingernails (actually cow hooves) — all fascinating because of their enormous size.

Bemidji likes Bunyan

Folks in Bemidji really like Paul Bunyan. They have a Paul Bunyan Drive, motel, playhouse (offering summer theater), cellular communications experts, animal land, amusement park, and mall. At Bemidji Woolen Mills they buy everything imaginable to dress like their hero.

A half-hour from Bemidji is Minnesota’s first and best state park, Itasca, famous as the location of the shallow headwaters of the 2,552-mile-long Mississippi River. Legend says the river was formed when the water wagon Babe was hauling sprung a leak. The park is also famous for its grove of 300-year-old pines. Walking among these real giants is a mystical experience; many visitors express thanks the trees were never cut.

Also near Bemidji is Earle Dickinson’s Buena Vista Ski Area. To honor the old jacks, Dickinson has created the Lumberjack Hall of Fame. Inside the log building, resembling a cook shack or bunkhouse, are photos of the early lumbering days. Occasionally, Dickinson holds re-creations of antiquated lumbering events and offers horse-drawn covered wagon rides.

About an hour south of Bemidji lies Akeley (population 400), which has its own statue of Paul Bunyan, a 42-foot-high kneeling replica built of fiberglass in 1984. It’s large enough for a person to sit in the outstretched hand. To prove their point that Paul was born here, locals have placed Paul’s baby cradle, big enough to rock a baby rhino, next to the statue. Also within reach of the statue in the historical society building are logging tools, another of Paul’s toothbrushes, and turn-of-the-century photos of the town showing thousands of logs stacked and ready for transport, but not a living tree in sight.

The cut trees were owned by the Red River Lumber Co., the town’s real tie to Paul Bunyan. Although the company’s advertising executive, William Laughead, never claimed to have invented Paul, Laughead was an advertising genius who used Bunyan as the company’s symbol. Laughead’s retold and invented folk tales have made the lumberjack more famous than the now nearly forgotten lumber company he symbolized. Laughead did claim he created Babe and Paul’s other larger-than-life buddies.

A short trip south lies Hackensack (population 250), in which stands a 17-foot-tall statue of the girl who won Paul’s heart: Lucette Diana Kensack. Lucette fell in love with her man after he showed off his strength cutting trees. Their romance in the tall timber culminated, some say, when they wed in June 1938. Next to Lucette is a pint-size statue of Paul Jr., added in 1991.

Multiple Bunyan statues

A third Bunyan statue is in the Paul Bunyan Amusement Center in Brainerd (population 12,350). The 27-foot animated Paul amazes children by answering their questions and knowing their names (parents secretly tell an employee the names when the kids aren’t listening). While talking with Paul, kids can sit on his size 80 boots.

Among the 29 other attractions are chickens that play tick-tack-toe and basketball for food, 100-year-old antique arcade games, a 1913 circus organ, bunkhouse with snoring mannequin loggers, and a delightful miniature diorama of a logging camp with moving action figures.

Another diorama of a lumberjack camp, oil paintings of early logging days, realistic photos of the hard lumberjack life, and items from a lumberjack kitchen are on display in the Crow Wing Historical Society Museum in downtown Brainerd. Among the most interesting items is the “No Talking” sign once posted in a lumberjack kitchen. It encouraged fast eating, resulted in more work, and avoided arguments among jacks of different ethnic backgrounds.

With all these towns claiming to be Bunyan’s true home, visitors never leave northern Minnesota without learning the lore of one of the region’s most famous citizens — who never really existed.

For more information:

Forest History Center

2609 County Road 76

Grand Rapids, Minn. 55744; telephone: (218) 327-4482

Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce

1 NW Third St.

Grand Rapids, Minn. 55744; telephone (218) 326-9607 or 800-458-2223

(First weekend in August is Tall Timber Days Festival)

Paul Bunyan Amusement Center

Junction of Hwy 210-371

Brainerd, Minn. 56401; telephone: (218) 829-6324

Open Memorial Day through Labor Day

Brainerd Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce

126 North 6th St.

Brainerd, Minn. 56401-0356; telephone: 1-800-450-2838