BEMIDJI — The stories and songs of the lumberjack said to be 63 axe handles high make Paul Bunyan a tale as tall as himself.
The first mention of Paul Bunyan and his trusty bovine Babe the Blue Ox appears to originate in the late 19th century at a logging camp. Historian Michael Edmonds, author of Out of the Northwoods, reasoned that veteran loggers would tell these tales to prank the younger workers.
These stories include Paul’s footsteps creating Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes and Babe digging the Great Lakes to quench the loggers’ thirsts.
In Akeley, the annual Paul Bunyan Days runs June 28-30, including a treasure hunt, live music and a grand parade on Sunday.
Peg Davies, Akeley Chamber of Commerce president and a resident of the area for 54 years, said the community celebration draws between 500 and 1,000 people to the town of 404.
“It started in 1948 with some local citizens and businessmen that wanted to celebrate the town," Davies said. "We've had it every year except one during COVID, so this is our 75th Diamond Jubilee year,” Davies said.
Author Mark Cecil will offer a Friday, June 28, book signing at Bemidji’s Paul Bunyan Park for his new title Bunyan and Henry, a novel loosely combining the tales of Paul Bunyan and steel-driving John Henry with the epic of Gilgamesh.
Bemidji’s Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues were built in 1937 for a winter carnival and have been maintained as permanent features for decades. Downtown Bemidji celebrates Paul Bunyan every day and will host an outdoor vendor mart on Saturday, June 29.
For some, however, the legends of Paul Bunyan represent a painful history of displacement and deforestation.
Cecil said in an interview on KAXE's Area Voices that the stories reveal larger societal issues beyond the surface.
“Things like capitalism and race, the environment — just the defining traits and fault lines of American culture and American history,” Cecil said.
The clearcutting techniques used by lumber companies in the 19th century have left only small pockets of old-growth forest in the Northwoods, like the Lost 40 in the Chippewa National Forest. The loss of these woods is believed to be connected to the loss of Northern Minnesota’s woodland caribou.
The influx of timber workers to the area also put additional pressure on Indigenous people to sign away or sell off their ancestral lands.
The abundant pine supply in Northern Minnesota was exhausted by the time of the Great Depression, and while the lumber industry still exists, state and local resource managers plan timber sales of public lands and invest in tree planting.
But Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox have become marketing icons well beyond their origin stories.
Chocolates, stuffed animals, jewelry, keychains — you name it, and you can probably find one of Paul and Babe somewhere in Minnesota.
Lumberjacks and the man himself are represented in Bemidji’s school mascots, business names and logos, and there’s an entire theme park based on the duo in rural Brainerd.
So if you’re so inclined, there are plenty of ways and places to celebrate Paul Bunyan Day.
