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Paul Bunyan is a mythical lumberjack in tall tales.

A lumberjack of huge size and strength, Paul Bunyan is an old folkloric character in the American psyche. It is said that he and his blue ox, Babe, were so large their footsteps created Minnesota's ten thousand lakes. Babe measured 42 axe handles and a plug of chewing tobacco between his horns. He was found during the winter of the blue snow; his mate was Bessie, the Yaller Cow.

Like many myths, this explains a physical phenomenon. Bunyan's birth was strange, as are the births of many mythic heroes, as it took seventeen storks to carry the infant (ordinarily, one stork could carry several babies and drop them off at their parents' home). Paul and Babe dug the Grand Canyon by dragging his axe behind him. He is a classic American "big man" who was popular in 19th century America as an exemplar of a minority group.

The myth of Paul Bunyan can be traced back to James MacGillivray, a reporter for the Detroit News. He collected the stories from actual lumberjacks, and began disseminating the legend with the July 24, 1910 printing of The Round River Drive which included the following, concerning Dutch Jake (another mythical lumberjack of great strength) and the narrator participating in a Bunyan-sponsored contest to cut down the biggest tree in the forest.

"Dutch Jake and me had picked out the biggest tree we could find on the forty, and we'd put three days on the cut with our big saw, what was three crosscuts brazed together, making 30 feet of teeth. We was getting along fine on the fourth day when lunchtime comes, and we thought we'd best get to the sunny side to eat. So we grabs our grub and starts around that tree.

'We hadn't gone far when we heard a noise. Blamed if there wasn't Bill Carter and Sailor Jack sawin' at the same tree. It looked like a fight at first, but we compromised, meetin' each other at the heart on the seventh day. They'd hacked her to fall to the north, and we'd hacked her to fall to the south, and there that blamed tree stood for a month or more, clean sawed through, but not knowin' which way to drop 'til a windstorm came along and throwed her over."

Statues of both Bunyan and Babe exist in Bemidji, Minnesota and Del Norte County, California. Statues of Bunyan exist in Bangor, Maine; Brainerd, Minnesota; Shelton, WashingtonShelton is a city located in Mason County, Washington. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 8,442. Shelton has a unique form of government in the State of Washington. It is the only city in the state which still retains the commission; and Portland, OregonPortland is the largest city in Oregon, and county seat of Multnomah County. It is a major Pacific seaport located about sixty miles from the west coast of the United States, situated on both sides of the Willamette River, just south of its confluence wit. Bunyan is depicted on the world's largest wood carving, at the entrance to Sequoia National ParkSequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno, California. The park was the second national park to be formed in the USA, in 1890. The park spans 404,051 acres (1,635 km²). The park is adjacent to Kings Canyon Nati in California. There is a group called the Mystic Knights of the Blue Ox in Bayfield, WisconsinThis page refers to the city of Bayfield. If you'd like the town of Bayfield, please go to Bayfield (town), Wisconsin Bayfield is a city located in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 611. Geography Accord.

Paul Bunyan has at least four towns vying for being considered his home: the abovementioned Bemidji, Brainerd, and Shelton; and Westwood, CaliforniaWestwood is also a district in the city of Los Angeles, California Westwood is a census-designated place located in Lassen County, California. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 1,998. Geography Westwood is located at 40°18'18" North.