Post by Z451 on Nov 4, 2013 18:00:18 GMT
Paul Bunyan
Bunyan's birth was somewhat unusual, as are the births of many mythic heroes, as it took five storks to carry the infant (ordinarily, one stork could carry several babies and drop them off at their parents' homes).
When he was old enough to clap and laugh, the vibration broke every window in the house.
When he was seven months old, he sawed the legs off his parents' bed in the middle of the night.
Paul and his companion Babe the Blue Ox dug the Grand Canyon when he dragged his axe behind him.
He created Mount Hood by piling rocks on top of his campfire to put it out.
Babe the Blue Ox, Bunyan's companion, was a massive creature with exceptional strength.
Most imagery of Bunyan shows Babe the Blue Ox as of proportionate size (meaning massive compared to typical oxen).
Among other subjects, a myth about the formation of Great Lakes was centered on Babe: Paul Bunyan needed to create a watering hole large enough for Babe to drink from.
There are also stories that Minnesota's 10,000 lakes were formed by Paul and Babe's footprints while they wandered blindly in a deep blizzard.
Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett were said to have given Babe to Paul, because they were all woodsy pioneer types.
Paul Bunyan has dozens of towns vying to be considered his home.
Several authors, including James Stevens and D. Laurence Rogers, have traced the tales to the exploits of French-Canadian lumberjack Fabian "Saginaw Joe" Fournier (1845–1875).
From 1865 to 1875 Fournier worked for the H. M. Loud Company in the Grayling, Michigan area, where MacGillivray later worked and apparently picked up the stories.
The state of Michigan declared Oscoda, Michigan, as the official home of Paul Bunyan because it had the earliest documented published stories by MacGillivray.
Other towns such as Bemidji, Brainerd, Shelton, and Westwood; Bay City; Wahoo; Eau Claire; and even Bangor also claim the title.
Kelliher, Minnesota, is the home of Paul Bunyan Memorial Park, which contains a site purporting to be Paul Bunyan's grave.
Another legend claims that Rib Mountain in Wausau, Wisconsin, is Bunyan's grave site.
The Paul Bunyan Council of the Boy Scouts of America was active in Midland, Michigan, from 1951 to 1971 and two Order of the Arrow lodges have their original roots tied into the fable of Paul Bunyan.
OA Lodge 196, Mesabi, from Hibbing, Minnesota, used Paul Bunyan as its lodge totem from 1941 to 1995.
OA Lodge 26, Blue Ox, from Rochester, Minnesota, has used the Blue Ox (Babe) exclusively as its lodge totem and on nearly all patches and neckerchiefs since 1927.
Links
Wikipedia> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bunyan_(lumberjack)
American Folklore> americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/babe_the_blue_ox.html
Paul Bunyan Trail> www.brainerd.com/pbtrail/tale.html
Copyright Owner
Public Domain> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain
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