{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_32994/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_32994","id":"gutenberg_32994","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32994","summary":null,"tags":["Bunyan, Paul (Legendary character)","Category: American Literature","Category: Humour","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore"],"text":"E-text prepared by David Edwards, Ernest Schaal, and the Project Gutenberg\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned\nimages of public domain material generously made available by Microsoft's\nLive Search Books\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustrations.\n      See 32994-h.htm or 32994-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/32994/pg32994-images.html)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32994/32994-h.zip)\n\n\n      Images of the original pages were available through the\n      Microsoft Search Book project, which was discontinued by\n      Microsoft in 2008. These images, or a remarkably similar\n      set, are now available though Internet Archive. See\n      http://www.archive.org/details/marvelousexploit00laugiala\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n      This book has no table of contents, since it has no chapters.\n      It has no list of illustrations, since most of the\n      illustrations lacked captions. Instead, it is a book of short\n      stories about Paul Bunyan, which is part advertising for a\n      lumber company and part stories of \"America's only myth.\"\n\n      Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).\n\n      A detailed list of corrections is at the end of the e-book.\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: PAUL BUNYAN AND HIS BIG BLUE OX (book cover)]\n\n\n_The Marvelous Exploits of_\n\nPAUL BUNYAN\n\nAS TOLD IN THE CAMPS\nOF THE WHITE PINE LUMBERMEN FOR\nGENERATIONS\n\nDURING WHICH TIME THE LOGGERS\nHAVE PIONEERED THE WAY THROUGH\nTHE NORTH WOODS\nFROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA\n\n_Collected from Various Sources and\nEmbellished for Publication_\n\n[Illustration]\n\nText and Illustrations\nBy\nW. B. Laughead\n\n\n_Published for the Amusement\nof our Friends by_\n\nThe RED RIVER LUMBER COMPANY\nMINNEAPOLIS, WESTWOOD, CAL., CHICAGO,\nLOS ANGELES-:-SAN FRANCISCO\n\n_NINETEEN TWENTY-TWO_\n\n\nPAUL Bunyan is the hero of lumbercamp whoppers that have been handed\ndown for generations. These stories, never heard outside the haunts of\nthe lumberjack until recent years, are now being collected by learned\neducators and literary authorities who declare that Paul Bunyan is \"the\nonly American myth.\"\n\nThe best authorities never recounted Paul Bunyan's exploits in narrative\nform. They made their statements more impressive by dropping them\ncasually, in an off hand way, as if in reference to actual events of\ncommon knowledge. To over awe the greenhorn in the bunkshanty, or the\npaper-collar stiffs and home guards in the saloons, a group of\nlumberjacks would remember meeting each other in the camps of Paul\nBunyan. With painful accuracy they established the exact time and place,\n\"on the Big Onion the winter of the blue snow\" or \"at Shot Gunderson's\ncamp on the Tadpole the year of the sourdough drive.\" They elaborated on\nthe old themes and new stories were born in lying contests where the\nheights of extemporaneous invention were reached.\n\nIn these conversations the lumberjack often took on the mannerisms of\nthe French Canadian. This was apparently done without special intent and\nno reason for it can be given except for a similarity in the mock\nseriousness of their statements and the anti-climax of the bulls that\nwere made, with the braggadocio of the _habitant_. Some investigators\ntrace the origin of Paul Bunyan to Eastern Canada. Who can say?\n\n[Illustration: _Logging Road near Westwood, California. White Pine and\nOld Fashioned Winters made Paul Bunyan feel at home._]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPAUL Bunyan came to Westwood, California in 1913 at the suggestion of\nsome of the most prominent loggers and lumbermen in the country. When\nthe Red River Lumber Company announced their plans for opening up their\nforests of Sugar Pine and California White Pine, friendly advisors shook\ntheir heads and said,\n\n  \"Better send for Paul Bunyan.\"\n\nApparently here was the job for a\nSuperman,--quality-and-quantity-production on a big scale and great\nengineering difficulties to be overcome. Why not Paul Bunyan? This is a\nWhite Pine job and here in the High Sierras the winter snows lie deep,\njust like the country where Paul grew up. Here are trees that dwarf the\nlargest \"cork pine\" of the Lake States and many new stunts were planned\nfor logging, milling and manufacturing a product of supreme\nquality--just the job for Paul Bunyan.\n\nThe Red River people had been cutting White Pine in Minnesota for two\ngenerations; the crews that came west with them were old heads and every\none knew Paul Bunyan of old. Paul had followed the White Pine from the\nAtlantic seaboard west to the jumping-off place in Minnesota, why not go\nthe rest of the way?\n\n[Illustration: TRADE MARK REGISTERED]\n\nPaul Bunyan's picture had never been published until he joined Red River\nand this likeness, first issued in 1914, is now the Red River trademark.\nIt stands for the quality and service you have the right to expect from\nPaul Bunyan.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWHEN and where did this mythical hero get his start? Paul Bunyan is\nknown by his mighty works; his antecedents and personal history are lost\nin doubt. You can prove that Paul logged off North Dakota and grubbed\nthe stumps, not only by the fact that there are no traces of pine\nforests in that State, but by the testimony of oldtimers who saw it\ndone. On the other hand, Paul's parentage and birth date are unknown.\nLike Topsy, he jes' growed.\n\nNobody cared to know his origin until the professors got after him. As\nlong as he stayed around the camps his previous history was treated with\nthe customary consideration and he was asked no questions, but when he\nbroke into college it was all off. Then he had to have ancestors, a\nbirthday and all sorts of vital statistics. For now Paul is recognized\nas a regular Myth and students of folk-lore are making scientific\nresearch of the Paul Bunyan Legend.\n\nR. R. Fenska, Professor of Forest Engineering, New York State College of\nForestry, Syracuse University, an authority on Paul Bunyan, writes: \"He\nis not only an all-American myth but as far as can be determined, the\nonly myth or legend in this country. It is all-American because Paul's\nexploits are all accomplished on this continent and there is no\ncounterpart in the Old World. The origin of Paul is as much a myth as\nthe legend itself. There are some who feel that he was known in the\nNortheastern forest back in the early 19th century but the best\navailable evidence points to the pineries of the Lake States as the\n\"Mother\" of Paul Bunyan. It is certain that he developed to the zenith\nof his powers in that region during the '80s and '90s.\"\n\nProfessor Fenska points out that Paul was a \"Northerner\" for when the\nvirgin forests of the Lake States began to wane and the lumberjack\nshifted to the Southern Yellow Pine region, little was heard of him for\nnearly a decade. Noting his reappearance on the Pacific Coast, this\nauthority discounts the rumors that Paul has gone to Alaska and\nexpresses the opinion that his greatest exploits will take place in the\nvast forests of the west.\n\nEsther Shepherd, Department of English, Reed College, Portland, Oregon\nhas traced the Paul Bunyan legend back to Maine but finds evidence of\nbeginnings that antedate the Maine epoch and is still carrying on her\npainstaking search for the ultimate source. Writing in the _Pacific\nReview_, Mrs. Shepherd relates this one about Paul's babyhood.\n\n\"Paul Bunyan was born in Maine. When three weeks old he rolled around so\nmuch in his sleep that he destroyed four square miles of standing\ntimber. Then they built a floating cradle for him and anchored it off\nEastport. When Paul rocked in his cradle it caused a seventy-five foot\ntide in the Bay of Fundy and several villages were washed away. He\ncouldn't be wakened, however, until the British Navy was called out and\nfired broadsides for seven hours. When Paul stepped out of his cradle he\nsank seven warships and the British government seized his cradle and\nused the timber to build seven more. That saved Nova Scotia from\nbecoming an island, but the tides in the Bay of Fundy haven't subsided\nyet.\"\n\n\"Seeing that this North American Continent has only one myth that is\nentirely it's own\" J. M. Leever of the Pacific Lumber Company writes in\na San Francisco paper, \"It is a pity that it should have been in danger\nof being forgotten.\" After paying tribute to the work of Prof. Fenska\nand the University of Oregon Mr. Leever continues, \"Where the tradition\nof this Davy Crockett of the axe, this superman of the camps originated,\nnobody can tell exactly. But it is probable that the stories of his\ncourage and impossible feats started on the St. Lawrence among the\nFrench Canadians and filtered into the woods of the Adirondacks,\nMichigan and Wisconsin. Although at times very human, Paul Bunyan in his\nbigger moments far surpassed any of the figures of classical\nScandinavian or Celtic legend. For the sake of the young of the land his\nmemory ought to be kept forever fresh.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nLee J. Smits conducted a \"Paul Bunyan\" column in _The Seattle Star_ and\npublished many entertaining contributions from oldtimers. These were\nturned over to the University of Washington for preservation.\n\n\"Standing alone in his might and inventiveness is Paul Bunyan, central\nfigure in America's meager folklore\" Mr. Smits says editorially, \"Only\namong the pioneers could Paul thrive, his deeds are inspired by such\nimagination as grows only in the great outdoors. For hours at a time,\nlumberjacks will pile up the achievements of their hero. Each story is a\nchallenge calling for a yarn still more heroic. The story teller who\nsucceeds in eliciting a snicker is an artist, indeed, as the Paul Bunyan\nlegends must always be related and received with perfect seriousness.\nPaul Bunyan has become a part of the every day life of the loggers. He\nserves a valuable purpose in giving every hardship and tough problem its\nwhimsical turn.\"\n\nMr. Harry L. Neall, of Harry L. Neall & Son, Mining Engineers of Eureka,\nCal., a student of the history of the lumber industry, has written that\nbeneath the phrase \"invented lumbering\" used in connection with Paul\nBunyan, there exists a basis of fact. Tracing the beginnings of the\nindustry from the cutting of \"The King's Spars\" in what is now the State\nof Maine, before the Mayflower came to Plymouth Rock, Mr. Neall states\nthat \"modern lumbering, as a separate industry was really invented in\nNew York in 1790 and that most of the oldtime lumbermen trace their\nancestry to forefathers who were a part of this beginning of lumbering.\"\nThe Red River people were interested to learn from Mr. Neall that a\nWalker built a mill in Maine in 1680; another Walker sold a two-thirds\ninterest in this mill in 1716 and three Walkers were saw mill owners in\nNew Hampshire in 1785. Following the Pine Cutters across New York and\nPennsylvania, Mr. Neall found that the land records enable one to pick\nthem out by their names \"as distinguished from the Palatinate settlers\nwho came solely for the farm lands upon which the hardwoods grew.\" That\nthe Paul Bunyan stories go back to the beginnings of the industry is the\nbelief of Mr. Neall who heard them in his grandfather's logging camps in\nPennsylvania and quotes this ancestor as connecting Paul with the early\ntraditions.\n\nDeWitt L. Hardy, \"column conductor\" on the Portland _Oregonian_, ran a\nPaul Bunyan series for several months and received many more\ncontributions than it was possible to print, though they were featured\nalmost daily, writes Mr. Hardy:\n\n\"Paul Bunyan is, as your folklore sharks doubtless will inform you,\nabout the only true fable of this character we have in this country. I\ndo not attempt to dip into any of the real sub-surface studies of its\ndevelopment, my experience with Paul having been severely practical. I\nfirst heard of him in a soddy in North Dakota, where I was told of his\ngreat logging operations when he stripped that country and removed the\nstumps. In the mass of correspondence I received while handling the Paul\nBunyan yarns here, answers came from all corners of the globe and from\nall classes of people.\"\n\nIda V. Turney, Department of Rhetoric, University of Oregon, and\nPresident of the Oregon Council of English, has written a chapbook of\nPaul Bunyan stories,--\"gang-lore\" Miss Turney classifies them, citing\ntechnical reasons why they cannot be called \"myth\" \"legend\" or\n\"folk-lore.\"\n\n\"It is distinctly American\" she writes, \"No other country could possibly\nproduce a literary type just like it; for it is, at least so I think, a\nsymbolic expression of the forces of physical labor at work in the\ndevelopment of a great country. The symbolism is, of course,\nunconscious, but none the less accurate.\"\n\nMiss Turney, the daughter of a lumberman, has known these stories from\nchildhood. \"All Paul Bunyan stories start in a gang\" she says, \"others\nare imitations ... Perhaps Paul Bunyan is the great American epic; but\nif so it is _in the making_. In that case it seems to me that any gang\nhas a perfect right to create new stories.... Paul has become\nastonishingly versatile in the West. He has tried his hand at almost\neverything, just as the former laborers in the camps of Michigan and\nWisconsin branched into whatever big wild untamed hard work they came\nacross.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBABE, the big blue ox, constituted Paul Bunyan's assets and liabilities.\nHistory disagrees as to when, where and how Paul first acquired this\nbovine locomotive but his subsequent record is reliably established.\nBabe could pull anything that had two ends to it.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBabe was seven axehandles wide between the eyes according to some\nauthorities; others equally dependable say forty-two axehandles and a\nplug of tobacco. Like other historical contradictions this comes from\nusing different standards. Seven of Paul's axehandles were equal to a\nlittle more than forty-two of the ordinary kind.\n\nWhen cost sheets were figured on Babe, Johnny Inkslinger found that\nupkeep and overhead were expensive but the charges for operation and\ndepreciation were low and the efficiency was very high. How else could\nPaul have hauled logs to the landing a whole section (640 acres) at a\ntime? He also used Babe to pull the kinks out of the crooked logging\nroads and it was on a job of this kind that Babe pulled a chain of\nthree-inch links out into a straight bar.\n\nThey could never keep Babe more than one night at a camp for he would\neat in one day all the feed one crew could tote to camp in a year. For a\nsnack between meals he would eat fifty bales of hay, wire and all and\nsix men with picaroons were kept busy picking the wire out of his teeth.\nBabe was a great pet and very docile as a general thing but he seemed to\nhave a sense of humor and frequently got into mischief. He would sneak\nup behind a drive and drink all the water out of the river, leaving the\nlogs high and dry. It was impossible to build an ox-sling big enough to\nhoist Babe off the ground for shoeing, but after they logged off Dakota\nthere was room for Babe to lie down for this operation.\n\nOnce in a while Babe would run away and be gone all day roaming all over\nthe Northwestern country. His tracks were so far apart that it was\nimpossible to follow him and so deep that a man falling into one could\nonly be hauled out with difficulty and a long rope. Once a settler and\nhis wife and baby fell into one of these tracks and the son got out when\nhe was fifty-seven years old and reported the accident. These tracks,\ntoday form the thousands of lakes in the \"Land of the Sky-Blue Water.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBECAUSE he was so much younger than Babe and was brought to camp when a\nsmall calf, Benny was always called the Little Blue Ox although he was\nquite a chunk of an animal. Benny could not, or rather, would not haul\nas much as Babe nor was he as tractable but he could eat more.\n\nPaul got Benny for nothing from a farmer near Bangor, Maine. There was\nnot enough milk for the little fellow so he had to be weaned when three\ndays old. The farmer only had forty acres of hay and by the time Benny\nwas a week old he had to dispose of him for lack of food. The calf was\nundernourished and only weighed two tons when Paul got him. Paul drove\nfrom Bangor out to his headquarters camp near Devil's Lake, North Dakota\nthat night and led Benny behind the sleigh. Western air agreed with the\nlittle calf and every time Paul looked back at him he was two feet\ntaller.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWhen they arrived at camp Benny was given a good feed of buffalo milk\nand flapjacks and put into a barn by himself. Next morning the barn was\ngone. Later it was discovered on Benny's back as he scampered over the\nclearings. He had outgrown his barn in one night.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nBenny was very notional and would never pull a load unless there was\nsnow on the ground so after the spring thaws they had to white wash the\nlogging roads to fool him.\n\nGluttony killed Benny. He had a mania for pancakes and one cook crew of\ntwo hundred men was kept busy making cakes for him. One night he pawed\nand bellowed and threshed his tail about till the wind of it blew down\nwhat pine Paul had left standing in Dakota. At breakfast time he broke\nloose, tore down the cook shanty and began bolting pancakes. In his\ngreed he swallowed the red-hot stove. Indigestion set in and nothing\ncould save him. What disposition was made of his body is a matter of\ndispute. One oldtimer claims that the outfit he works for bought a hind\nquarter of the carcass in 1857 and made corned beef of it. He thinks\nthey have several carloads of it left.\n\nAnother authority states that the body of Benny was dragged to a safe\ndistance from the North Dakota camp and buried. When the earth was\nshoveled back it made a mound that formed the Black Hills in South\nDakota.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE custodian and chaperon of Babe the Big Blue Ox was Brimstone Bill.\nHe knew all the tricks of that frisky giant before they happened.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"I know oxen\" the old bullwhacker used to say, \"I've worked 'em and fed\n'em and doctored 'em ever since the ox was invented. And Babe, I know\nthat pernicious old reptyle same as if I'd abeen through him with a\nlantern.\"\n\nBill compiled \"The Skinner's Dictionary\", a hand book for teamsters, and\nmost of the terms used in directing draft animals (except mules)\noriginated with him. His early religious training accounts for the fact\nthat the technical language of the teamster contains so many names of\nplaces and people spoken of in the Bible.\n\nThe buckskin harness used on Babe and Benny when the weather was rainy\nwas made by Brimstone Bill. When this harness got wet it would stretch\nso much that the oxen could travel clear to the landing and the load\nwould not move from the skidway in the woods. Brimstone would fasten the\nharness with an anchor Big Ole made for him and when the sun came out\nand the harness shrunk the load would be pulled to the landing while\nBill and the oxen were busy at some other job.\n\nThe winter of the Blue Snow, the Pacific Ocean froze over and Bill kept\nthe oxen busy hauling regular white snow over from China. M. H. Keenan\ncan testify to the truth of this as he worked for Paul on the Big Onion\nthat winter. It must have been about this time that Bill made the first\nox yokes out of cranberry wood.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFEEDING Paul Bunyan's crews was a complicated job. At no two camps were\nconditions the same. The winter he logged off North Dakota he had 300\ncooks making pancakes for the Seven Axemen and the little Chore-boy. At\nheadquarters on the Big Onion he had one cook and 462 cookees feeding a\ncrew so big that Paul himself never knew within several hundred either\nway, how many men he had.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAt Big Onion camp there was a lot of mechanical equipment and the\ntrouble was a man who could handle the machinery cooked just like a\nmachinist too. One cook got lost between the flour bin and the root\ncellar and nearly starved to death before he was found.\n\nCooks came and went. Some were good and others just able to get by. Paul\nnever kept a poor one, very long. There was one jigger who seemed to\nhave learned to do nothing but boil. He made soup out of everything and\ndid most of his work with a dipper. When the big tote-sled broke through\nthe ice on Bull Frog Lake with a load of split peas, he served warmed up\nlake water till the crew struck. His idea of a lunch box was a jug or a\nrope to freeze soup onto like a candle. Some cooks used too much grease.\nIt was said of one of these that he had to wear calked shoes to keep\nfrom sliding out of the cook-shanty and rub sand on his hands when he\npicked anything up.\n\nThere are two kinds of camp cooks, the Baking Powder Bums and the\nSourdough Stiffs. Sourdough Sam belonged to the latter school. He made\neverything but coffee out of Sourdough. He had only one arm and one leg,\nthe other members having been lost when his sourdough barrel blew up.\nSam officiated at Tadpole River headquarters, the winter Shot Gunderson\ntook charge.\n\nAfter all others had failed at Big Onion camp, Paul hired his cousin Big\nJoe who came from three weeks below Quebec. This boy sure put a mean\nscald on the chuck. He was the only man who could make pancakes fast\nenough to feed the crew. He had Big Ole, the blacksmith make him a\ngriddle that was so big you couldn't see across it when the steam was\nthick. The batter, stirred in drums like concrete mixers, was poured on\nwith cranes and spouts. The griddle was greased by colored boys who\nskated over the surface with hams tied to their feet. They had to have\ncolored boys to stand the heat.\n\nAt this camp the flunkeys wore roller skates and an idea of the size of\nthe tables is gained from the fact that they distributed the pepper with\nfour-horse teams.\n\nSending out lunch and timing the meals was rendered difficult by the\nsize of the works which required three crews--one going to work, one on\nthe job and one coming back. Joe had to start the bull-cook out with the\nlunch sled two weeks ahead of dinner time. To call the men who came in\nat noon was another problem. Big Ole made a dinner horn so big that no\none could blow it but Big Joe or Paul himself. The first time Joe blew\nit he blew down ten acres of pine. The Red River people wouldn't stand\nfor that so the next time he blew straight up but this caused severe\ncyclones and storms at sea so Paul had to junk the horn and ship it East\nwhere later it was made into a tin roof for a big Union Depot.\n\n[Illustration: _MT. LASSEN, CALIFORNIA\n\nThe only active Volcano in America. Where Big Joe cooks the beans._]\n\nWhen Big Joe came to Westwood with Paul, he started something. About\nthat time you may have read in the papers about a volcanic eruption at\nMt. Lassen, heretofore extinct for many years. That was where Big Joe\ndug his bean-hole and when the steam worked out of the bean kettle and\nup through the ground, everyone thought the old hill had turned volcano.\nEvery time Joe drops a biscuit they talk of earthquakes.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIt was always thought that the quality of the food at Paul's Camps had a\nlot to do with the strength and endurance of the men. No doubt it did,\nbut they were a husky lot to start with. As the feller said about fish\nfor a brain food, \"It won't do you no good unless there is a germ there\nto start with.\"\n\nThere must have been something to the food theory for the chipmunks that\nate the prune pits got so big they killed all the wolves and years later\nthe settlers shot them for tigers.\n\nA visitor at one of Paul's camps was astonished to see a crew of men\nunloading four-horse logging sleds at the cook shanty. They appeared to\nbe rolling logs into a trap door from which poured clouds of steam.\n\n\"That's a heck of a place to land logs\" he remarked.\n\n\"Them aint logs\" grinned a bull-cook \"them's sausages for the teamsters'\nbreakfast.\"\n\nAt Paul's camp up where the little Gimlet empties into the Big Auger,\nnewcomers used to kick because they were never served beans. The bosses\nand the men could never be interested in beans. E. E. Terrill tells us\nthe reason:\n\nOnce when the cook quit they had to detail a substitute to the job\ntemporarily. There was one man who was no good anywhere. He had failed\nat every job. Chris Crosshaul, the foreman, acting on the theory that\nevery man is good _somewhere_, figured that this guy must be a cook, for\nit was the only job he had not tried. So he was put to work and the\nfirst thing he tackled was beans. He filled up a big kettle with beans\nand added some water. When the heat took hold the beans swelled up till\nthey lifted off the roof and bulged out the walls. There was no way to\nget into the place to cook anything else, so the whole crew turned in to\neat up the half cooked beans. By keeping at it steady they cleaned them\nup in a week and rescued the would-be-cook. After that no one seemed to\ncare much for beans.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIt used to be a big job to haul prune pits and coffee grounds away from\nPaul's camps. It required a big crew of men and either Babe or Benny to\ndo the hauling. Finally Paul decided it was cheaper to build new camps\nand move every month.\n\nThe winter Paul logged off North Dakota with the Seven Axemen, the\nLittle Chore Boy and the 300 cooks, he worked the cooks in three\nshifts--one for each meal. The Seven Axemen were hearty eaters; a\nportion of bacon was one side of a 1600-pound pig. Paul shipped a\nstern-wheel steamboat up Red River and they put it in the soup kettle to\nstir the soup.\n\nLike other artists, cooks are temperamental and some of them are full of\ncussedness but the only ones who could sass Paul Bunyan and get away\nwith it were the stars like Big Joe and Sourdough Sam.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe lunch sled,--most popular institution in the lumber industry! It's\narrival at the noon rendezvous has been hailed with joy by hungry men on\nevery logging job since Paul invented it. What if the warm food freezes\non your tin plate, the keen cold air has sharpened your appetite to\nenjoy it. The crew that toted lunch for Paul Bunyan had so far to travel\nand so many to feed they hauled a complete kitchen on the lunch sled,\ncooks and all.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOVER thirty years ago The Red River Lumber Company, foreseeing the end\nof their White Pine which was reached in 1915, set out to find the pine\nthat would supply a trade that demands the qualities found in White\nPine. All the forests of North America were examined and exhaustively\nstudied and the selection was Sugar Pine and California White\nPine,--\"the largest pines that ever grew\" and production started at\nWestwood in 1914.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSUGAR PINE,--\"cork pine's big brother,\" is botanically a White Pine with\nall the family virtues that have made White Pine the standard from the\ndays of the Pilgrim Fathers to the period of \"cork\" White Pine in the\nLake States. It is light, soft, even-textured, easy-to-work, durable and\nwill not warp or check.\n\nCALIFORNIA WHITE PINE ranks second only to Sugar Pine in size and is\nclose to it in White Pine qualities. Botanically a Yellow Pine, its\ntexture has been so changed by climate and altitude that it in no way\nresembles the Yellow Pines and is so much like White Pine that its trade\nname is necessary to prevent confusion on the part of the consumer.\n\nWHITE FIR is light, straight grained and easily worked. A smaller\npercentage of upper grades than the big pines, but with knots so small\nthat the commons offer exceptional values and advantages. It is used for\nconcrete forms, sheathing, studding and for dairy containers and\npackages that must be odorless and tasteless. It also makes a handsome\ninterior finish.\n\nINCENSE CEDAR is used chiefly for pencils and chests--a soft,\nstraight-grained red cedar.\n\nThe Red River people strive for a quality of manufacture worthy of such\nmagnificent trees. The Westwood plant, electrically operated throughout,\nis a new departure in its field, with a capacity of 200 million feet a\nyear. Planned by our own engineers, much of the machinery and equipment\nis of our own design and new standards of efficiency, economy and\nprecision of cutting have been set. Modern dry-kilns handle a large\npart of the output and yield perfectly seasoned lumber, free from drying\ndefects, in a few days instead of the months required for air drying.\n\n[Illustration: _One of the Westwood Crane Crews Piling Lumber for\nAir-drying. One board at a Time is Too Slow. The Record for One\nCrane--10 Hours is 678,900 Feet, Board Measure._]\n\nThe plant operates the year 'round, logging, sawing, manufacturing and\nshipping. Handicaps of a severe winter climate are overcome and frozen\nlogs are thawed in a steam-heated pond. Continuous operation gives\nsteady employment to skilled and experienced men and a rapid replacement\nof stocks that makes Westwood a dependable source of supply for the\ntrade.\n\nThe large Red River factories at Westwood are equipped to supply every\nknown need of the trade and made-to-order specialties are quickly turned\nout. The most modern machinery is used for cutting, finishing, glueing\nand other operations.\n\nOur moldings, sash and doors and similar products are superior in their\nclean-cut workmanship as well as the texture of the wood. Box shooks,\nsash and door cuttings, boards for winding fine textiles or making organ\npipes, piano keys and key-beds, curtain poles and shade rollers are some\nof our products. Cutting out the knots and waste at the source of supply\naffords economies that are profitable to all wood consuming industries.\n\n[Illustration: _One of the Edgers, Westwood Mill, California._]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWHEN Paul invented logging he had to invent all the tools and figure out\nall his own methods. There were no precedents. At the start his outfit\nconsisted of Babe and his big axe.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nNo two logging jobs can be handled exactly the same way so Paul adapted\nhis operations to local conditions. In the mountains he used Babe to\npull the kinks out of the crooked logging roads; on the Big Onion he\nbegan the system of hauling a section of land at a time to the landings\nand in North Dakota he used the Seven Axemen.\n\nAt that time marking logs was not thought of, Paul had no need for\nidentification when there were no logs but his own. About the time he\nstarted the Atlantic Ocean drive others had come into the industry and\nalthough their combined cut was insignificant compared to Paul's, there\nwas danger of confusion, and Paul had most to lose.\n\nAt first Paul marked his logs by pinching a piece out of each log. When\nhis cut grew so large that the marking had to be detailed to the crews,\nthe \"scalp\" on each log was put on with an axe, for even in those days\nnot every man could nip out the chunk with his fingers.\n\nThe Grindstone was invented by Paul the winter he logged off North\nDakota. Before that Paul's axemen had to sharpen their axes by rolling\nrocks down hill and running along side of them. When they got to \"Big\nDick,\" as the lumberjacks called Dakota, hills and rocks were so hard to\nfind that Paul rigged up the revolving rock.\n\nThis was much appreciated by the Seven Axemen as it enabled them to\ngrind an axe in a week, but the grindstone was not much of a hit with\nthe Little Chore Boy whose job it was to turn it. The first stone was so\nbig that working at full speed, every time it turned around once it was\npayday.\n\nThe Little Chore Boy led a strenuous life. He was only a kid and like\nall youngsters putting in their first winter in the woods, he was put\nover the jumps by the oldtimers. His regular work was heavy enough,\nsplitting all the wood for the camp, carrying water and packing lunch to\nthe men, but his hazers sent him on all kinds of wild goose errands to\nall parts of the works, looking for a \"left-handed peavy\" or a \"bundle\nof cross-hauls.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHe had to take a lot of good natured roughneck wit about his size for he\nonly weighed 800 pounds and a couple of surcingles made a belt for him.\nWhat he lacked in size he made up in grit and the men secretly respected\nhis gameness. They said he might make a pretty good man if he ever got\nany growth, and considered it a necessary education to give him a lot of\nextra chores.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nOften in the evening, after his day's work and long hours put in turning\nthe grindstone and keeping up fires in the camp stoves--that required\nfour cords of wood apiece to kindle a fire, he could be found with one\nof Big Ole's small 600-pound anvils in his lap pegging up shoes with\nrailroad spikes.\n\nIt was a long time before they solved the problem of turning logging\nsleds around in the road. When a sled returned from the landing and put\non a load they had to wait until Paul came along to pick up the four\nhorses and the load and head them the other way. Judson M. Goss says he\nworked for Paul the winter he invented the round turn.\n\nAll of Paul's inventions were successful except when he decided to run\nthree ten-hour shifts a day and installed the Aurora Borealis. After a\nnumber of trials the plan was abandoned because the lights were not\ndependable.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"THE Seven Axemen of the Red River\" they were called because they had a\ncamp on Red River with the three-hundred cooks and the Little Chore Boy.\nThe whole State was cut over from the one camp and the husky seven\nchopped from dark to dark and walked to and from work.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTheir axes were so big it took a week to grind one of them. Each man had\nthree axes and two helpers to carry the spare axes to the river when\nthey got red hot from chopping. Even in those days they had to watch out\nfor forest fires. The axes were hung on long rope handles. Each axeman\nwould march through the timber whirling his axe around him till the hum\nof it sounded like one of Paul's fore-and-aft-mosquitoes, and at every\nstep a quarter-section of timber was cut.\n\nThe height, weight and chest measurement of the Seven Axemen are not\nknown. Authorities differ. History agrees that they kept a cord of\nfour-foot wood on the table for toothpicks. After supper they would sit\non the deacon seat in the bunk shanty and sing \"Shanty Boy\" and \"Bung\nYer Eye\" till the folks in the settlements down on the Atlantic would\nthink another nor'wester was blowing up.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSome say the Seven Axemen were Bay Chaleur men; others declare they were\nall cousins and came from down Machias way. Where they came from or\nwhere they went to blow their stake after leaving Paul's camp no one\nknows but they are remembered as husky lads and good fellows around\ncamp.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nAfter the Seven Axemen had gone down the tote road, never to return,\nPaul Bunyan was at a loss to find a method of cutting down trees that\nwould give him anything like the output he had been getting. Many trials\nand experiments followed and then Paul invented the two-man saw.\n\nThe first saw was made from a strip trimmed off in making Big Joe's\ndinner horn and was long enough to reach across a quarter section, for\nPaul could never think in smaller units. This saw worked all right in a\nlevel country, in spite of the fact that all the trees fell back on the\nsaw, but in rough country only the trees on the hill tops were cut.\nTrees in the valleys were cut off in the tops and in the pot holes the\nsaw passed over the trees altogether.\n\nIt took a good man to pull this saw in heavy timber when Paul was\nworking on the other end. Paul used to say to his fellow sawyer, \"I\ndon't care if you ride the saw, but please don't drag your feet.\" A\ncouple of cousins of Big Ole's were given the job and did so well that\never afterward in the Lake States the saw crews have generally been\nScandinavians.\n\nIt was after this that Paul had Big Ole make the \"Down-Cutter.\" This was\na rig like a mowing machine. They drove around eight townships and cut a\nswath 500 feet wide.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE Winter of the Deep Snow everything was buried. Paul had to dig down\nto find the tops of the tallest White Pines. He had the snow dug away\naround them and lowered his sawyers down to the base of the trees. When\nthe tree was cut off he hauled it to the surface with a long parbuckle\nchain to which Babe, mounted on snowshoes, was hitched. It was\nimpossible to get enough stove pipe to reach to the top of the snow, so\nPaul had Big Ole make stovepipe by boring out logs with a long six-inch\nauger.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe year of the Two Winters they had winter all summer and then in the\nfall it turned colder. One day Big Joe set the boiling coffeepot on the\nstove and it froze so quick that the ice was hot. That was right after\nPaul had built the Great Lakes and that winter they froze clear to the\nbottom. They never would have thawed out if Paul had not chopped out the\nice and hauled it out on shore for the sun to melt. He finally got all\nthe ice thawed but he had to put in all new fish.\n\nThe next spring was the year the rain came up from China. It rained so\nhard and so long that the grass was all washed out by the roots and Paul\nhad a great time feeding his cattle. Babe had to learn to eat pancakes\nlike Benny. That was the time Paul used the straw hats for an emergency\nration.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWhen Paul's drive came down, folks in the settlements were astonished to\nsee all the river-pigs wearing huge straw hats. The reason for this was\nsoon apparent. When the fodder ran out every man was politely requested\nto toss his hat into the ring. Hundreds of straw hats were used to make\na lunch for Babe.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTALK about a job for Paul Bunyan! In 1913 the site of Westwood was\nprimeval forest, sixty mountainous miles from the nearest railroad.\nTractors, trucks and hundreds of horses freighted in materials before\nthe railroad was extended and when the future residents arrived the town\nwas complete to the last detail.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nNot a shack in the town. Modern houses, sanitary sewers, waterworks,\nelectricity, grade and high schools, hospital, church, clubs, up-to-date\ndepartment store, cafeteria, dairy, packing house, and cold storage,\ntheatre, soda fountains, garage and ball park--the 5,400 citizens of\nWestwood enjoy comfortable homes, good schools, year 'round employment\nat good wages, low living costs, and form one of the most-up-and-coming\ncommunities in the progressive State of California.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLUCY, Paul Bunyan's cow, was not, so far as we can learn, related in any\nway to either Babe or Benny. Statements that she was their mother are\nwithout basis in fact. The two oxen had been in Paul's possession for a\nlong time before Lucy arrived on the scene.\n\nNo reliable data can be found as to the pedigree of this remarkable\ndairy animal. There are no official records of her butter-fat production\nnor is it known where or how Paul got her.\n\nPaul always said that Lucy was part Jersey and part wolf. Maybe so. Her\nactions and methods of living seemed to justify the allegation of wolf\nancestry, for she had an insatiable appetite and a roving disposition.\nLucy ate everything in sight and could never be fed at the same camp\nwith Babe or Benny. In fact, they quit trying to feed her at all but let\nher forage her own living. The Winter of the Deep Snow, when even the\ntallest White Pines were buried, Brimstone Bill outfitted Lucy with a\nset of Babe's old snowshoes and a pair of green goggles and turned her\nout to graze on the snowdrifts. At first she had some trouble with the\nnew foot gear but once she learned to run them and shift gears without\nwrecking herself, she answered the call of the limitless snow fields and\nran away all over North America until Paul decorated her with a bell\nborrowed from a buried church.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIn spite of short rations she gave enough milk to keep six men busy\nskimming the cream. If she had been kept in a barn and fed regularly she\nmight have made a milking record. When she fed on the evergreen trees\nand her milk got so strong of White Pine and Balsam that the men used it\nfor cough medicine and linament, they quit serving the milk on the table\nand made butter out of it. By using this butter to grease the logging\nroads when the snow and ice thawed off, Paul was able to run his logging\nsleds all summer.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE family life of Paul Bunyan, from all accounts, has been very happy.\nA charming glimpse of Mrs. Bunyan is given by Mr. E. S. Shepard of\nRhinelander, Wis., who tells of working in Paul's camp on Round River in\n'62, the Winter of the Black Snow. Paul put him wheeling prune pits away\nfrom the cook camp. After he had worked at this job for three months\nPaul had him haul them all back again as Mrs. Bunyan, who was cooking at\nthe camp, wanted to use them to make the hot fires necessary to cook her\nfamous soft nosed pancakes.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nMrs. Bunyan, at this time used to call the men to dinner by blowing into\na woodpecker hole in an old hollow stub that stood near the door. In\nthis stub there was a nest of owls that had one short wing and flew in\ncircles. When Mr. Shepard made a sketch of Paul, Mrs. Bunyan, with\nwifely solicitude for his appearance, parted Paul's hair with a handaxe\nand combed it with an old crosscut saw.\n\nFrom other sources we have fragmentary glimpses of Jean, Paul's youngest\nson. When Jean was three weeks old he jumped from his cradle one night\nand seizing an axe, chopped the four posts out from under his father's\nbed. The incident greatly tickled Paul, who used to brag about it to any\none who would listen to him. \"The boy is going to be a great logger some\nday,\" he would declare with fatherly pride.\n\nThe last we heard of Jean he was working for a lumber outfit in the\nSouth, lifting logging trains past one another on a single track\nrailroad.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIT is no picnic to tackle the wilderness and turn the very forest itself\ninto a commercial commodity delivered at the market. A logger needs\nplenty of brains and back bone.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nPaul Bunyan had his setbacks the same as every logger only his were\nworse. Being a pioneer he had to invent all his stuff as he went along.\nMany a time his plans were upset by the mistakes of some swivel-headed\nstrawboss or incompetent foreman. The winter of the blue snow, Shot\nGunderson had charge in the Big Tadpole River country. He landed all of\nhis logs in a lake and in the spring when ready to drive he boomed the\nlogs three times around the lake before he discovered there was no\noutlet to it. High hills surrounded the lake and the drivable stream was\nten miles away. Apparently the logs were a total loss.\n\nThen Paul came on the job himself and got busy. Calling in Sourdough\nSam, the cook who made everything but coffee out of sourdough, he\nordered him to mix enough sourdough to fill the big watertank. Hitching\nBabe to the tank, he hauled it over and dumped it into the lake. When it\n\"riz\", as Sam said, a mighty lava-like stream poured forth and carried\nthe logs over the hills to the river. There is a landlocked lake in\nNorthern Minnesota that is called \"Sourdough Lake\" to this day.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nChris Crosshaul was a careless cuss. He took a big drive down the\nMississippi for Paul and when the logs were delivered in the New Orleans\nboom it was found that he had driven the wrong logs. The owners looked\nat the barkmarks and refused to accept them. It was up to Paul to drive\nthem back upstream.\n\nNo one but Paul Bunyan would ever tackle a job like that. To drive logs\nupstream is impossible, but if you think a little thing like an\nimpossibility could stop him, you don't know Paul Bunyan. He simply fed\nBabe a good big salt ration and drove him to the upper Mississippi to\ndrink. Babe drank the river dry and sucked all the water upstream. The\nlogs came up river faster than they went down.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBIG Ole was the Blacksmith at Paul's headquarters camp on the Big Onion.\nOle had a cranky disposition but he was a skilled workman. No job in\niron or steel was too big or too difficult for him. One of the cooks\nused to make doughnuts and have Ole punch the holes. He made the griddle\non which Big Joe cast his pancakes, and the dinner horn that blew down\nten acres of pine. Ole was the only man who could shoe Babe or Benny.\nEvery time he made a set of shoes for Babe they had to open up another\nMinnesota iron mine. Ole once carried a pair of these shoes a mile and\nsunk knee deep into solid rock at every step. Babe cast a shoe while\nmaking a hard pull one day, and it was hurled for a mile and tore down\nforty acres of pine and injured eight Swedes that were swamping out\nskidways. Ole was also a mechanic and built the Downcutter, a rig like a\nmowing machine that cut down a swath of trees 500 feet wide.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIN the early days, whenever Paul Bunyan was broke between logging\nseasons, he travelled around like other lumberjacks doing any kind of\npioneering work he could find. He showed up in Washington about the time\nThe Puget Construction Co. was building Puget Sound and Billy Puget was\nmaking records moving dirt with droves of dirt throwing badgers. Paul\nand Billy got into an argument over who had shovelled the most. Paul got\nmad and said he'd show Billy Puget and started to throw the dirt back\nagain. Before Billy stopped him he had piled up the San Juan Islands.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWHEN a man gets the reputation in the woods of being a \"good man\" it\nrefers only to physical prowess. Frequently he is challenged to fight by\n\"good men\" from other communities.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThere was Pete Mufraw. \"You know Joe Mufraw?\" \"Oui, two Joe Mufraw, one\nnamed Pete.\" That's the fellow. After Pete had licked everybody between\nQuebec and Bay Chaleur he started to look for Paul Bunyan. He bragged\nall over the country that he had worn out six pair of shoe-pacs looking\nfor Paul. Finally he met up with him.\n\nPaul was plowing with two yoke of steers and Pete Mufraw stopped at the\nbrush-fence to watch the plow cut its way right through rocks and\nstumps. When they reached the end of the furrow Paul picked up the plow\nand the oxen with one arm and turned them around. Pete took one look and\nthen wandered off down the trail muttering, \"Hox an' hall! She's lift\nhox an' hall.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPAUL Bunyan started travelling before the steam cars were invented. He\ndeveloped his own means of transportation and the railroads have never\nbeen able to catch up. Time is so valuable to Paul he has no time to\nfool around at sixty miles an hour.\n\nIn the early days he rode on the back of Babe, the Big Blue Ox. This had\nit's difficulties because he had to use a telescope to keep Babe's hind\nlegs in view and the hooves of the ox created such havoc that after the\nsettlements came into different parts of the country there were heavy\ndamage claims to settle every trip.\n\nSnowshoes were useful in winter but one trip on the webs cured Paul of\ndepending upon them for transcontinental hikes. He started from\nMinnesota for Westwood one Spring morning. There was still snow in the\nwoods so Paul wore his snowshoes. He soon ran out of the snow belt but\nkept right on without reducing speed. Crossing the desert the heat\nbecame oppressive, his mackinaws grew heavy and the snowshoes dragged\nhis feet but it was too late to turn back.\n\nWhen he arrived in California he discovered that the sun and hot sand\nhad warped one of his shoes and pulled one foot out of line at every\nstep, so instead of travelling on a bee line and hitting Westwood\nexactly, he came out at San Francisco. This made it necessary for him to\ntravel an extra three hundred miles north. It was late that night when\nhe pulled into Westwood and he had used up a whole day coming from\nMinnesota.\n\nPaul's fast foot work made him a \"good man on the round stuff\" and in\nspite of his weight he had no trouble running around on the floating\nlogs, even the small ones. It was said that Paul could spin a log till\nthe bark came off and then run ashore on the bubbles. He once threw a\npeavy handle into the Mississippi at St. Louis and standing on it, poled\nup to Brainerd, Minnesota. Paul was a \"white water bucko\" and rode water\nso rough it would tear an ordinary man in two to drink out of the river.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJOHNNY Inkslinger was Paul's headquarters clerk. He invented bookkeeping\nabout the time Paul invented logging. He was something of a genius and\nperfected his own office appliances to increase efficiency. His fountain\npen was made by running a hose from a barrel of ink and with it he could\n\"daub out a walk\" quicker than the recipient of the pay-off could tie\nthe knot in his tussick rope.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nOne winter Johnny left off crossing the \"t's\" and dotting the \"i's\" and\nsaved nine barrels of ink. The lumberjacks accused him of using a split\npencil to charge up the tobacco and socks they bought at the wanagan but\nthis was just bunkshanty talk (is this the origin of the classic term\n\"the bunk\"?) for Johnny never cheated anyone.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHAVE you ever encountered the Mosquito of the North Country? You thought\nthey were pretty well developed animals with keen appetites didn't you?\nThen you can appreciate what Paul Bunyan was up against when he was\nsurrounded by the vast swarms of the giant ancestors of the present race\nof mosquitoes, getting their first taste of human victims. The present\nmosquito is but a degenerate remnant of the species. Now they rarely\nweigh more than a pound or measure more than fourteen or fifteen inches\nfrom tip to tip.\n\nPaul had to keep his men and oxen in the camps with doors and windows\nbarred. Men armed with pike-poles and axes fought off the insects that\ntore the shakes off the roof in their efforts to gain entrance. The big\nbuck mosquitoes fought among themselves and trampled down the weaker\nmembers of the swarm and to this alone Paul Bunyan and his crew owe\ntheir lives.\n\nPaul determined to conquer the mosquitoes before another season arrived.\nHe thought of the big Bumble Bees back home and sent for several yoke of\nthem. These, he hoped would destroy the mosquitoes. Sourdough Sam\nbrought out two pair of the bees, overland on foot. There was no other\nway to travel for the flight of the beasts could not be controlled.\nTheir wings were strapped with surcingles, they checked their stingers\nwith Sam and walking shoes were provided for them. Sam brought them\nthrough without losing a bee.\n\nThe cure was worse than the original trouble. The Mosquitoes and the\nBees made a hit with each other. They soon intermarried and their\noff-spring, as often happens, were worse than their parents. They had\nstingers fore-and-aft and could get you coming or going.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nTheir bee blood caused their downfall in the long run. Their craving for\nsweets could only be satisfied by sugar and molasses in large\nquantities, for what is a flower to an insect with a ten-gallon stomach?\nOne day the whole tribe flew across Lake Superior to attack a fleet of\nships bringing sugar to Paul's camps. They destroyed the ships but ate\nso much sugar they could not fly and all were drowned.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nOne pair of the original bees were kept at headquarters camp and\nprovided honey for the pancakes for many years.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIF Paul Bunyan did not invent Geography he created a lot of it. The\nGreat Lakes were first constructed to provide a water hole for Babe the\nBig Blue Ox. Just what year this work was done is not known but they\nwere in use prior to the Year of the Two Winters.\n\nThe Winter Paul Bunyan logged off North Dakota he hauled water for his\nice roads from the Great Lakes. One day when Brimstone Bill had Babe\nhitched to one of the old water tanks and was making his early morning\ntrip, the tank sprung a leak when they were half way across Minnesota.\nBill saved himself from drowning by climbing Babe's tail but all efforts\nto patch up the tank were in vain so the old tank was abandoned and\nreplaced by one of the new ones. This was the beginning of the\nMississippi River and the truth of this is established by the fact that\nthe old Mississippi is still flowing.\n\nThe cook's in Paul's camps used a lot of water and to make things handy,\nthey used to dig wells near the cook shanty. At headquarters on the Big\nAuger, on top of the hill near the mouth of the Little Gimlet, Paul dug\na well so deep that it took all day for the bucket to fall to the water,\nand a week to haul it up. They had to run so many buckets that the well\nwas forty feet in diameter. It was shored up with tamarac poles and when\nthe camp was abandoned Paul pulled up this cribbing. Travellers who have\nvisited the spot say that the sand has blown away until 178 feet of the\nwell is sticking up into the air, forming a striking landmark.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWHAT is camp without a dog? Paul Bunyan loved dogs as well as the next\nman but never would have one around that could not earn its keep. Paul's\ndogs had to work, hunt or catch rats. It took a good dog to kill the\nrats and mice in Paul's camps for the rodents picked up scraps of the\nbuffalo milk pancakes and grew to be as big as two year old bears.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nElmer, the moose terrier, practiced up on the rats when he was a small\npup and was soon able to catch a moose on the run and finish it with one\nshake. Elmer loafed around the cook camp and if the meat supply happened\nto run low the cook would put the dog out the door and say, \"Bring in a\nmoose.\" Elmer would run into the timber, catch a moose and bring it in\nand repeat the performance until, after a few minutes work, the cook\nfigured he had enough for a mess and would call the dog in.\n\nSport, the reversible dog, was really the best hunter. He was part wolf\nand part elephant hound and was raised on bear milk. One night when\nSport was quite young, he was playing around in the horse barn and Paul,\nmistaking him for a mouse, threw a hand axe at him. The axe cut the dog\nin two but Paul, instantly realizing what had happened, quickly stuck\nthe two halves together, gave the pup first aid and bandaged him up.\nWith careful nursing the dog soon recovered and then it was seen that\nPaul in his haste had twisted the two halves so that the hind legs\npointed straight up. This proved to be an advantage for the dog learned\nto run on one pair of legs for a while and then flop over without loss\nof speed and run on the other pair. Because of this he never tired and\nanything he started after got caught. Sport never got his full growth.\nWhile still a pup he broke through four feet of ice on Lake Superior and\nwas drowned.\n\nAs a hunter, Paul would make old Nimrod himself look like a city dude\nlost from his guide. He was also a good fisherman. Oldtimers tell of\nseeing Paul as a small boy, fishing off the Atlantic Coast. He would\nsail out early in the morning in his three-mast schooner and wade back\nbefore breakfast with his boat full of fish on his shoulder.\n\nAbout this time he got his shot gun that required four dishpans full of\npowder and a keg of spikes to load each barrel. With this gun he could\nshoot geese so high in the air they would spoil before reaching the\nground.\n\nTracking was Paul's favorite sport and no trail was too old or too dim\nfor him to follow. He once came across the skeleton of a moose that had\ndied of old age and, just for curiosity, picked up the tracks of the\nanimal and spent the whole afternoon following its trail back to the\nplace where it was born.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe shaggy dog that spent most of his time pretending to sleep in front\nof Johnny Inkslinger's counter in the camp office was Fido, the watch\ndog. Fido was the bug-bear (not bearer, just bear) of the greenhorns.\nThey were told that Paul starved Fido all winter and then, just before\npayday, fed him all the swampers, barn boys and student bull-cooks. The\nvery marrow was frozen in their heads at the thought of being turned\ninto dog food. Their fears were groundless for Paul would never let a\ndog go hungry or mistreat a human being. Fido was fed all the watch\npeddlers, tailors' agents, and camp inspectors and thus served a very\nuseful purpose.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWHEN Paul Bunyan took up efficiency engineering he went at the job with\nall his customary thoroughness. He did not fool around clocking the crew\nwith a stop watch, counting motions and deducting the ones used for\nborrowing chews, going for drinks, dodging the boss and preparing for\nquitting time. He decided to cut out labor altogether.\n\n[Illustration: Paul Bunyan says: \"I'm going to change \"Babe's\" name to\n\"Faith\" since he moved the mountain.\"]\n\n\"What's the use,\" said Paul, \"of all this sawing, swamping, skidding,\ndecking, grading and icing roads, loading, hauling and landing? The\nobject of the game is to get the trees to the landing, ain't it? Well,\nwhy not do it and get it off your mind?\"\n\nSo he hitched Babe to a section of land and snaked in the whole 640\nacres at one drag. At the landing the trees were cut off just like\nshearing a sheep and the denuded section hauled back to it's original\nplace. This simplified matters and made the work a lot easier. Six trips\na day, six days a week just cleaned up a township for section 37 was\nnever hauled back to the woods on Saturday night but was left on the\nlanding to wash away in the early spring when the drive went out.\n\nDocumentary evidence of the truth of this is offered by the United\nStates government surveys. Look at any map that shows the land\nsubdivisions and you will never find a township with more than\nthirty-six sections.\n\n[Illustration: Westwood, Cal. Dec. 32 (Special) Hauling in the last\nsection 37 in California today. Brimstone Bill, the bullwhacker in\ncharge of Babe, the Big Blue Ox, met with an accident that would have\nbeen fatal but for the prompt action of Paul Bunyan. The section skidded\non a bad turn and buried Brimstone against the mountain side. Mr. Bunyan\nhitched Babe to the mountain and pulled it away, releasing Brimstone who\nis recovering in the Westwood Hospital.]\n\nThe foregoing statement, previously published, has caused some\ncontroversy. Mr. T. S. Sowell of Miami, Florida wrote to us citing the\ntownships in his State that have sections numbered 37 to 40. He said\nthat the government survey had been complicated by the old Spanish land\ngrants. We put the matter up to Paul Bunyan and from his camp near\nWestwood came this reply:\n\n    Red River Advertising Department.\n\n\n     Dear Sir: Yes sir, I remember those sections and a lot of\n     bother they made me too. One winter when I was starting the\n     White Pine business and snaking sections down to the Atlantic\n     Ocean, a man from Florida came along and ordered a bunch of\n     sections delivered down to his place. He wanted to see if he\n     could grow the same kind of White Pine down there. I yarded out\n     a nice bunch of sections and next summer when my drive was in\n     and I wasn't busy I took a crew of Canada Boys and Mainites and\n     poled them down the coast. When I come to collect they said\n     this man was gone looking for a Fountain of Youth or some fool\n     thing.\n\n     I don't know what luck he had with his White Pine ranch. I\n     never seen them again. I had a lot of other things to tend to\n     and clean forgot it till you sent me Mr. Sowell's letter. Maybe\n     that man was a Spaniard I don't know.\n\n                                         Yours respectively,\n\n                                                        P. BUNYAN.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFROM 1917 to 1920 Paul Bunyan was busy toting the supplies and building\ncamps for a bunch of husky young fellow-Americans who had a contract on\nthe other side of the Atlantic, showing a certain prominent European\n(who is now logging in Holland) how they log in the United States.\n\nAfter his service overseas with the A. E. F., Paul couldn't get back to\nthe States quick enough. Airplanes were too slow so Paul embarked in his\nBark Canoe, the one he used on the Big Onion the year he drove logs\nupstream. When he threw the old paddle into high he sure rambled and the\nsea was covered with dead fish that broke their backs trying to watch\nhim coming and going.\n\nAs he shoved off from France, Paul sent a wireless to New York but\npassed the Statue of Liberty three lengths ahead of the message. From\nNew York to Westwood he travelled on skis. When the home folks asked him\nif the Allegheney Mountains and the Rockies had bothered him, Paul\nreplied, \"I didn't notice any mountains but the trail was a little bumpy\nin a couple of spots.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBACK in the early days, when his camps were so far from anywhere that\nthe wolves following the tote-teams got lost in the woods, Paul Bunyan\nmade no attempt to keep in touch with the trade. What's the use when\nevery letter that comes in is about things that happened the year\nbefore?\n\nSince he came to Westwood Paul has renewed old friendships, formed new\nones and kept close contact with the world. Everyone expects great\nthings of Paul Bunyan and with the Red River outfit back of him he has\nthe chance of his life to make good. Continuous production keeps a full\nassortment of stock on hand. Customers in all parts of America find\nWestwood a dependable source of supply.\n\nHere is an instance. This old friend of Paul's, a prominent furniture\nmanufacturer in the Lake States, was disappointed because an item he\nwanted for immediate shipment was not in stock in the grade and\nthickness required. He wrote the letter shown below and was given an\nexplanation of the facts in the case in the accompanying reply.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  PAUL\n  BUNYAN'S\n  PINE\n\n  CALIFORNIA WHITE\n  _And_ SUGAR PINES\n\n\"_Specified where economy is a vital factor, or where the best is used\nregardless of cost._\"\n\n  WHITE FIR\n  INCENSE CEDAR\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"_The old-fashioned White Pine our grandfathers used!_\"\n\nHow often have you wished for it, the soft, even textured, easy-working\nwood that took so well and weathered the years without a warp or a\ncheck?\n\n\n     Here it is, friends, better than ever,--clear plank 48 inches\n     wide if you want them. Red River products excel in workmanship,\n     precise cutting, perfect seasoning. YARD STOCKS, all items and\n     grades, boards, dimension, moldings, lath and sidings. FACTORY\n     LUMBER, sash and door cuttings and industrial cuttings for any\n     requirement. BOX SHOOKS and crate stocks of every description.\n     SASH AND DOORS, standard and made to order. PATTERN STOCK,\n     large sizes, easy working, durable.\n\n     Saving in working-up costs, by hand or machine; light weight\n     and the superior quality,--grade for grade, make PAUL BUNYAN'S\n     PINES the most profitable to buy, to work or to sell.\n     Distributed to all parts of America and to foreign countries.\n\n\n             _Largest Manufacturers of California Pines._\n\n          \"Producers of White Pine for over Half a Century.\"\n\n                         The RED RIVER LUMBER CO.\n\n                        T. B. WALKER, President.\n    GILBERT M. WALKER, Vice President FLETCHER L. WALKER, Treasurer\n      WILLIS J. WALKER, Vice President ARCHIE D. WALKER, Secretary\n\n    Mills, Factories & Sales Office,\n    R. F. Pray, Resident Mgr.\n    WESTWOOD CALIF.\n\n    General Office and Sales,\n    807 Hennepin Ave.,\n    MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.\n\n    Yards and Sales Office,\n    2452 Loomis St.,\n    CHICAGO, ILL.\n\n    Sales Office,\n    307 Monadnock Bldg.,\n    SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.\n\n    Sales Office,\n    832 Union Oil Bldg.\n    LOS ANGLES, CALIF.\n\n\n         _Extra Copies of This Book Mailed Free Upon Request._\n\n\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\nThe use of \"its\" and \"it's\" has been preserved as in the original\npublication.\n\nErrors in punctuation were not corrected unless otherwise noted below:\n\nList of Corrections:\n\nOn page 3, a comma was added after \"1914\".\n\nOn page 4, \"siezed\" was replaced with \"seized\".\n\nOn page 6, a comma was added after \"Oregonian\", a comma was added after\n\"Ida V. Turney\", and series of three asterisks were replaced with\nellipses.\n\nOn page 7, a comma was added after \"the big blue ox\" and an extra period\nat the end of the page was removed.\n\nOn page 11, a comma was added after \"concrete mixers\" and a period was\nadded after \"Volcano in America\".\n\nOn page 17, \"regularwork\" was replaced with \"regular work\".\n\nOn page 18, \"for-and-aft\" was replaced with \"fore-and-aft\".\n\nOn page 22, a comma was added after \"Paul Bunyan's cow\".\n\nOn page 23, a comma was added after \"camp\", a missing period was added\nto \"Mrs\", and \"siezing\" was replaced with \"seizing\".\n\nOn page 24, \"everything\" was replaced with \"everything\".\n\nOn page 29, \"cook's\" was replaced with \"cooks\".\n\nOn page 30, a comma was added after \"reversible dog\".\n\nOn page 32, an open quotation mark was added before \"of all\".\n\nOn page 35, \"Unoin Oil\" was replaced with \"Union Oil\", \"Los Angles\" was\nreplaced with \"Los Angeles\", and the table at the bottom was reformatted\nto fix the set page width","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","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":11603}