Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-06-20
More ON Paul Bumyon
True American Myth---a Wisconsin Product

His tracks were so far apart that
it was impossible to- follow him.
1t is said that the holes left by
his feet were so deep that when it
rained they became little lakes.
The presence of hundreds Of such
lakes in northern Wisconsin, which
was logged off much later than
Dakota, lends weight to this state
ment.
Babes Keeper Very Efficient.
The custodian and official chap
erone Of the big blue OK was
Birthstone Bill, one of Paul's head
men. He knew all the tricks of
the frisky giant before they hap
pened.
Il knows oxen the old bull
whacker used to say, I've worked
EN- and doctored 'em ever since
the OK was invented. Babe! Why,
| knows that pernicious old reptile
same as if I'd been through him
with lantern.
Bill made the buckskin harness
used on Babe in rainy weather.
When this harness got wet it
would stretch so much that the
OK could travel clear to the land
ing and the load of logs would
still be on the skids in the woods.
The harness was then fastened to
an anchor made by Big Ole, the
camp blacksmith, and when the
sun came out the buckskin would
shrink and pull the load to the
landing while Babe and the crew
we're busy on some other job.
Paul's Lumberjacks Well Fed.
The feeding of Paul Bunyan's
crews was a difficult job. No
force of cooks could be kept long
on the job in spite of the fact
that they were divided into three
shifts, one shift for each meal.
The winter Paul logged off North
Dakota he had 300 cooks making
pancakes for the Seven Axemen
and the little Chore-boy who
worked with him in the undertake
ing.
The incident that gave Pea-Soup
lake it's name is we'll known to
every lumber jack. Black Dan
Mcdonald was crossing a frozen
lake with tote-sled full of split
peas, when the sled broke through
four feet of ice and dragged the
team of oxen with it into the
lake. Pauls new cook, Sourdough
Sam, set fire to the underbrush
around the lake and boiled it up.
He then sluiced split pea soup
with ox-tail flavor down a number
of small creeks to the various
crews.
1t is said that the quality of
food served at Paul's camps had
much to do with the strength and
endurance of the men. 1t requir-
ed seven men with wheelbarrows
to haul the prune pits away from
single camp. The chipmunks that
ate the pits grew so big they kill
ed all the wolves in the neighbor-
hood, and years later the settlers
shot them for tigers.
Many other highly imaginative
stories come to us of the culinary
peculiarities Of Pauls camps. Some
of them are hard to believe! That
a portion of bacon for one of the
seven Dakota Axemen consisted of
a 1600-pound pig, and that Paul
shipped stern-wheel steamboat
up the Red River and used it to
stir the soup in the soup kettle
are perhaps exaggerations. But
the one fact that must be believed
about Paul Bunyan tales is that
they have originated in the fertile
and very imaginative minds of
thousands of American lumber
jacks. For that reason they are
distinctive. They reflect the vast
ness of the great American for
ests, and the enormous measures
of American pioneering life.
Says Lee ]. Smits editor of
Paul Bunyan' column in The
Seattle Star, Standing alone in
his might and inventiveness is
Paul Bunyan, central figure in
Americas meager folklore. Only
among the pioneers could Paul
thrive, his deeds are inspired by
such Imagination as grows only in
the great outdoors"
R. R. Fenska, Professor of For
est Engineering, Syracuse Univer-
slty, an authority ON Paul Bun
yam, writes:
He is not only an all-American