Paul Bunyan, the larger than life lumberjack......

there are all sorts of thing to attract visitors.

We have all heard from childhood, at least most of us have, the story of Paul Bunyan, the largest lumberjack who ever lived.   The stories we heard or read as a child may have faded away as many of them do, but I do not think that anyone could imagine how much larger than life he actually is up here in Minnesota.  

where he was actually born as every city around here seems to want to claim his birthplace.

Maybe he was like Obama...he certainly has a lot of different places he calls home...lol At any rate, it seems there is a lot to do up here in the north land.....albeit freezes pretty well during winter, I have discovered many things about this larger than life myth and some of the stories told up here about him rival even what I have read in books.

Many of the cities here have at least one statue of the giant lumberjack, I have seen many renditions of him everywhere I go. There is a town called Bemidji which boasts an extremely large statue of him as well as his Blue Ox Babe. Now where he found that huge ox, I would have to do a lot of reading to find out....the stories of his prowess in the lumberjacking days of old abound and seem to still grow. The mouth to the great Mississippi River is also here in this city....you can walk across it.

Many cities here have created festivals around the legendary giant. One such city is Brainerd, MN. About 7 miles from the city, there is am amusement park....and in the lot, there stands the great Blue Ox, Babe. There are a lot of rides and fun to be had here, but I think the main attraction is the 26 foot statue of Paul, who greets every child by his or her name! How they accomplished this feat I am not sure, but it is a wonderful place to spend a day....maybe two if you don't get to go on all the rides.....They sport a rock climbing wall, haunted house, pioneer village and it is a lot of fun! I have included their web address for those of you who are planning things to do this summer.

Another place which has also taken up Pauls birthrite is Hackensack, MN.....Now they have a good story and when you hear this one, you will scratch your head as did I.....

It seems, they have a 17 foot statue of Pauls sweetheart and wife, Lucette....at least this is what they have named her. The townspeople came up with this idea to draw visitors to their city. She stands at the edge of a lake, and has genuine moose eyes. The story of her coming to MN from Iowa to help her family on a logging camp; and inadvertently to marriage to the larger than life Paul, is interesting enough, but this is even better than all that.....

Lucettes' head blew off during a high wind one year and the residents took her down to repair the statue....LOL Then they claim they found she was "pregnant", so along came a statue of Paul Junior....now when I read this story, it was, well, how can a statue get pregnant? Had they had too much moonshine to drink??? Be that as it may, there is a smaller statue of the younger and Lucettes soft moose eyes and smile gaze upon another statue of Paul across the way......Hackensack is an interesting place and boasts many different resort areas not only to camp, but in cabins also......There is a place called Deep Portage down the highway from it which has all kinds of different camp type things going on all summer long....birding, art, and is set down in the pines. Beautiful trip...

I found out that a lot of the resorts up here were constructed at old logging camp sites. Pretty interesting, as this was an area which provided many of the logs driven down rivers to get to the southern regions in days of old. And this is actually true. The Heartland Trail also runs through here and is now a great place to hike, bike, or just walk through the woods.

Minnesota actually has great fishing all year round. Boats in the summer and then ice fishing in the winter. People wait and wait until the ice is thick enough to go set their icehouses out on the frozen lakes and cut holes in it to fish.....kind of like the eskimoes, only they are in the comfort of their little houses complete with heaters inside. Some of them are really uptown!

In a month or so, there will be Moondance Country Jam, and Moondance Rock Festival goin on up here....A Minnesota Woodstock!

I have lived in many places during my lifetime. Traveled all around, been to California, the East Coast and the Gulf.....but I find living up here more interesting than in all the places I have lived ...and the weather is just awesome. I would not think of living anywhere else, and especially being entertained everywhere I go with tales of the king of the lumberjacks and his great blue ox. Check the links provided for more info....the tales are too many to tell in a hub or seemingly in a lifetime.....and they seem to grow each time they are told!!!