Origins of Paul Bunyan Stories
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.
From: 1790 C.E. To: 1922 C.E.
Location: United States of America
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan by W. B. Laughead, 1922.
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….
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 folklore 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 gone to Alaska and expresses the opinion that his greatest exploits will take place in the vast forests of the west.
Esther Shepherd, Department of English, Reed College, Portland, Oregon has traced the Paul Bunyan legend back to Maine but finds evidence of beginnings that antedate the Maine epoch and is still carrying on her painstaking search for the ultimate source. Writing in the Pacific Review, Mrs. Shepherd relates this one about Paul's babyhood.
"Paul Bunyan was born in Maine. When three weeks old he rolled around so much in his sleep that he destroyed four square miles of standing timber. Then they built a floating cradle for him and anchored it off Eastport. When Paul rocked in his cradle it caused a seventy-five foot tide in the Bay of Fundy and several villages were washed away. He couldn't be wakened, however, until the British Navy was called out and fired broadsides for seven hours. When Paul stepped out of his cradle he sank seven warships and the British government siezed his cradle and used the timber to build seven more. That saved Nova Scotia from becoming an island but the tides in the Bay of Fundy haven't subsided yet."
"Seeing that this North American Continent has only one myth that is entirely it's own" J. M. Leever of the Pacific Lumber Company writes in a San Francisco paper, "It is a pity that it should have been in danger of being forgotten." After paying tribute to the work of Prof. Fenska and the University of Oregon Mr. Leever continues, "Where the tradition of this Davy Crockett of the axe, this superman of the camps originated, nobody can tell exactly. But it is probable that the stories of his courage and impossible feats started on the St. Lawrence among the French Canadians and filtered into the woods of the Adirondacks, Michigan and Wisconsin. Although at times very human, Paul Bunyan in his bigger moments far surpassed any of the figures of classical Scandinavian or Celtic legend. For the sake of the young of the land his memory ought to be kept forever fresh."
Lee J. Smits conducted a "Paul Bunyan" column in The Seattle Star and published many entertaining contributions from oldtimers. These were turned over to the University of Washington for preservation.
"Standing alone in his might and inventiveness is Paul Bunyan, central figure in America's meager folklore" Mr. Smits says editorially, "Only among the pioneers could Paul thrive, his deeds are inspired by such imagination as grows only in the great outdoors. For hours at a time, lumberjacks will pile up the achievements of their hero. Each story is a challenge calling for a yarn still more heroic. The story teller who succeeds in eliciting a snicker is an artist, indeed, as the Paul Bunyan legends must always be related and received with perfect seriousness. Paul Bunyan has become a part of the every day life of the loggers. He serves a valuable purpose in giving every hardship and tough problem its whimsical turn."
Mr. Harry L. Neall, of Harry L. Neall & Son, Mining Engineers of Eureka, Cal., a student of the history of the lumber industry, has written that beneath the phrase "invented lumbering" used in connection with Paul Bunyan, there exists a basis of fact. Tracing the beginnings of the industry from the cutting of "The King's Spars" in what is now the State of Maine, before the Mayflower came to Plymouth Rock, Mr. Neall states that "modern lumbering, as a separate industry was really invented in New York in 1790 and that most of the oldtime lumbermen trace their ancestry to forefathers who were a part of this beginning of lumbering."
The Red River people were interested to learn from Mr. Neall that a Walker built a mill in Maine in 1680; another Walker sold a two-thirds interest in this mill in 1716 and three Walkers were saw mill owners in New Hampshire in 1785. Following the Pine Cutters across New York and Pennsylvania, Mr. Neall found that the land records enable one to pick them out by their names as distinguished from the Palatinate settlers who came solely for the farm lands upon which the hardwoods grew." That the Paul Bunyan stories go back to the beginnings of the industry is the belief of Mr. Neall who heard them in his grandfather's logging camps in Pennsylvania and quotes this ancestor as connecting Paul with the early traditions.
DeWitt L. Hardy, “column conductor" on the Portland Oregonian ran a Paul Bunyan series for several months and received many more contributions than it was possible to print, though they were featured almost daily, writes Mr. Hardy:
'"Paul Bunyan is, as your folklore sharks doubtless will inform you, about the only true fable of this character we have in this country. I do not attempt to dip into any of the real sub-surface studies of its development, my experience with Paul having been severely practical. I first heard of him in a soddy in North Dakota, where I was told of his great logging operations when he stripped that country and removed the stumps. In the mass of correspondence I received while handling the Paul Bunyan yarns here, answers came from all corners of the globe and from all classes of people."
Ida V. Turney Department of Rhetoric, University of Oregon, and President of the Oregon Council of English, has written a chapbook of Paul Bunyan stories,—"gang-lore" Miss Turney classifies them, citing technical reasons why they cannot be called "myth" "legend" or "folk-lore."
"It is distinctly American"" she writes. "No other country could possibly produce a literary type just like it: for it is. at least so I think, a symbolic expression ot the forces of physical labor at work in the development of a great country. The symbolism is. of course, unconscious, but none the less accurate."'
Miss Turney, the daughter of a lumberman, has known these stories from childhood. "All Paul Bunyan stories start in a gang" she says, "others are imitations* * * Perhaps Paul Bunyan is the great American epic; but if so it is in the jnoking. In that case it seems to me that any gang has a perfect right to create new stories. * * * Paul has become astonishingly versatile in the West. He has tried his hand at almost everything, just as the former laborers in the camps of Michigan and Wisconsin branched into whatever big wild untamed hard work they came across.”
Laughead, W. B. The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan. The Red River Lumber Company, 1922.
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