Episode 18 - The Tale of Paul Bunyan

Most of us love a good story.  And stories of adventure and larger than life characters are most favored.  

In this episode I share the folk tale of Paul Bunyan and his trusted Babe the blue ox.  Paul and Babe are memorilized throughout America's midwest with parks, statues, tourist locations, and historical signs.

I invite you to join me in the story behind the story of this great American folk tale.

Reference:

Disney Wiki

History.com

The Historical Marker Database

I invite you to share this podcast with others. If you have interesting stories about historical markers you've discovered, or perhaps are in your area, please email me at: americanhistoricalmarkers@gmail.com.

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Safe Travels!

Transcript

Hello Friends,

 I’m your host Dave Laton and welcome to Signs of Our Time, Discovering America’s heritage, one sign at a time.This podcast is designed to provide the story behind the story found on America’s roadside historical signs and markers.  

Folk heroes are a common part of our historical past.  No matter the profession or activity, it is common to find stories of great heroes.  Some of the stories are true.  Some are based on a real person but have grown with the telling.  

In this episode I want to tell the story behind the story of one such folk tale that is memorialized in several places on historical markers.  

The American folk tale of Paul Bunyan is a great example.  There are many tales of the exploits of this famous lumberjack and his trusty, and giant blue ox named Babe.

As the tale goes, Paul was born gigantic.  Supposedly it took 5 huge storks to deliver the infant to his parents in Bangor Maine.  As he grew, he drug his massive ax and formed the Grand Canyon.  His giant footprints, along with those of Babe became Minnesota’s  10,000 lakes.

As with most folk tales, there might be a basis of truth in its beginning.

 Some historians believe that Paul Bunyan’s character is based in part on a French-Canadian lumberjack named Fabian Fournier.  Fornier moved south to work on a logging crew in Michigan after the Civil War.  Fornier was nicknamed, “Saginaw Joe.  He was described as over 6 feet tall in a time when most men were an average of 5 feet.  And perhaps most remarkable of all, he was said to have a full set of teeth.  I guess that would be remarkable for the time and occupation

The sad end of Fournier, or Saginaw Joe, was that in November of 1875, he was murdered in a wild lumber town of Bay Cit, Michigan.  There was a sensational trial but his accused killer was acquitted.  But the tales of Saginaw and his rough-and-tumble life, along with the prowess as a lumberjack continued to grow.

The tales of the character, Paul Bunyan were first printed in 1904 by William B. Laughead (pronounced “Log-hed”).  Laughead used Paul Bunyan in a series of promotional pamphlets for the Red River Lumber Company beginning in 1916. 

Over time, Paul Bunyan became a beloved figure in children's books and a symbol for tourism, with giant statues of him and Babe appearing across the United States. 

I recall the short film by Walt Disney first released in 1958.  Part of the Disney film included a song written by George Bruns and Tom Adair and performed by the Mellomen.  Here’s the words and chorus for the first verse:

 North America was a great big land

 With a great big job to be done

 A job that needed a great big man
 Paul Bunyan was the one
 
Hey Paul! (Hey Paul!)

 Paul Bunyan! (Paul Bunyan!)

He's 63 ax handles high

With his feet on the ground

And his head in the sky

Hey Paul! (Hey Paul!)

Paul Bunyan! (Paul Bunyan, Paul Bunyan, Paul Bunyan)

 As you can imagine, Disney’s story version differed quite a bit from Laughead’s version.  According to the imagination of Disney’s writers, ffollowing a violent storm off on the coast of Maine, a lumberjack named Cal McNab spots a giant cradle  on the beach (no mention of where it might have come from).  In the cradle was a giant baby boy. The town adopted the boy and named him Paul Bunyan. 

One Christmas, the town gave Paul a double-bladed axe to help chop down timber. Paul's work cleared land for the town to grow but soon Paul was too big for it and decided to move out west.

As he goes, Paul helps clear land for farmers in the midwest. Then, during a fierce blizzard, Paul rescued a giant frozen ox that had turned blue from the cold. Paul adopts him and names him Babe. 

During the following spring, Paul and Babe's footprints through the snow filled up with water and became known as Minnesota’s "Land of 10,000 Lakes"  (That part is common to other tales). Paul eventually clears the trees from North Dakota and South Dakota, digs the Missouri River to float the logs to the sawmills.  He also built Pike's Peak as a lookout. He created the Grand Tetons while playing rough with Babe, and made Yellowstone Falls so he could take a shower.

 He was quite a character!

But that wasn’t the end of the story.  As Paul worked in the American west, he meets a slick salesman who challenged him to a contest against a steam powered chainsaw and a steam powered train to transport the logs. The winner would be proclaimed to have used superior ways and the loser would have to leave.  

Paul accepts the challenge declaring that nothing could replace him or Babe.  As Paul and Babe struggled against Joe and his steam powered devices, the piles of lumber grew.  At the end of the contest, Paul and Babe’s pile was 240 feet tall.  But Joe’s and his steam tools was 240 and ¼ inch tall.  Sadly, Joe was crowned as the winner of the contest.  

 True to his word, Paul and Babe leave.  Some say they went to Alaska and that the Aurora Borealis is just Paul and Babe tussling in the snow.

I remember as a little boy being so sad because Paul and Babe lost and had to move away.

Well, certainly, as tall tales go, there is no tale taller than Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe.

Well friends, there you have it.  A story behind the story from America’s historical signs and markers.  I hope you enjoyed this episode.  I invite you to subscribe and continue listening as we bring more episodes about the rich heritage of our great nation.

Please share this podcast with others.  If you have interesting stories about historical signs and markers, email me at: americanhistoricalmarkers@gmail.com.  Maybe your story behind the story will be featured.

I’m your host Dave Laton and thank you for listening, and safe travels!