Paul Bunyan

These are books about America,

its history, its geography and its heroes.

But it takes a big book like this one to tell the story of American folklore,

the tall tales about men doing big things in a big country.

Men like Cap'n Stormalong,

Joe Magarac,

John Henry,

Pecos Bill

and the fellow who towers above them all, Paul Bunyan.

My name is Cal McNab, lumberjack by trade.

I reckon I was the first person in our part of the country

to see Paul Bunyan.

Our town was cut right out of the big timber on the coast of Maine.

I should've known something was gonna happen that night.

A sou'easter come up and the wind howled so.

I thought it was gonna blow our town right off the map.

Come daylight, I took a look to see what was left of the place.

I spotted an odd-lookin' craft on the beach.

That's where the howling was comin' from.

Hey, Ma, what in the world do you suppose that is?

The howlin' roused the whole town

and everybody rushed down to investigate.

I never saw anything like it.

Looks like a big cradle.

Now, be careful, Cal.

Well, I'll be horn swallowed.

A baby! And it's a whopper!

The whole town adopted him

and named him Paul Bunyan.

Everybody pitched in to supply his needs.

They held sewing bees and knitting circles to make his clothes.

Feedin' him wasn't any small job, either.

I led the singin' to put him to sleep at night.

One, two...

It wasn't long before Paul was big enough to go to school.

He was a bright boy and never tardy.

Good morning, Paul.

Good morning, children. Now everyone be seated.

Will the first pupil to work the sum of five plus two

rise and show the answer?

Eeek!

That is correct, Paul,

but for heaven's sake, don't raise the roof!

School's out. Yeah!

Come on!

How about a dive, Paul?

Christmas was a big event in our town.

We had our tree in the town square, on account of Paul.

I handed out the presents.

You kids ready?

Well, here's something for Johnny.

For Susan.

And for Paul...

...here's a gift from the whole town,

a double-bladed axe.

Paul took to cuttin' timber like a duck takes to water.

Before long our sawmills had enough timber

to last a lifetime.

That opened plenty of new farmland.

Our town grew so fast it got to crowding Paul.

So one morning we weren't too surprised

to find a note in the square.

"And plenty of room. Love, Paul.

P.S. I'll write soon."

We're gonna miss that boy.

I am Chris Crosshaul,

straw boss of a logging crew in the Middle West.

I will never forget the first time I saw Paul Bunyan.

I was topping trees one morning.

I looked up and there stood the biggest man I ever saw.

Well, sir, Paul cleared that country so quick

farmers had their crops in the first week.

So, Paul headed west for the big woods and more room.

He hadn't gone far

when he ran into the worst blizzard this country ever saw.

It was so cold even the snow was blue.

When Paul built a fire the flames froze.

While he was building a second fire to melt the first one,

he heard a low moo.

He looked all around,

and there, under a fog bank he found a big ox,

frozen just as blue as the snow.

Now, that ox was mighty grateful for being rescued.

They hit it right off and became real pals.

Paul named him Babe.

The two of them headed west,

but the storm got worse and they got so lost.

Well, sir, they left lots of tracks behind them.

Come spring those tracks filled with water.

This area became known as the land of 10,000 lakes.

With winter over, Paul and Babe went right to work.

They logged off North and South Dakota,

dug the Missouri River to float the logs to the sawmills,

and then, so they could look the country over and see what else to do,

they built Pike's Peak.

Now, that was a fair day's work,