June 28 is Paul Bunyan Day. Paul Bunyan is a giant in American Folklore. He was a lumberjack who fell the mighty trees. The trees were much taller and thicker than the ones today. The incoming settlers used the woodsman’s timber to build homes and towns.

Paul Bunyan stood taller than the trees in the dense forests. He wears a knit cap over his black curly hair. A bushy beard covers the lower half of his face. Duck pants and a plaid shirt completes his wardrobe. An uprooted pine tree is his comb.

Babe, the Blue Ox, is his pet and companion. According to legend, Paul Bunyan found the ox in a raging winter storm. The animal’s ears were the size of barn doors. One would never guess the large ox was a baby. As time pasted, Babe grew bigger and stronger. Yet, the color blue remained.

In the tall tales, Paul was so strong he could pull a tree from the ground with his bare hands. He snapped the trees into small pieces as easily as we snap toothpicks today. Babe carried the lumber on his back.

Paul Bunyan had an army of lumberjacks working with him. The men worked hard in the forest. The cooks in the kitchen worked hard, too. A man the size of Paul Bunyan required a lot of food. The pancake griddle was so large the man placed lard on their feet. So equipped, they skated to oil the griddle.

Paul Bunyan is an American tall tale hero. The fictional character is an exaggeration on how the early settlers found lumber to build their building. It is a romantic tall tale of the making of America. Share the Paul Bunyan legend with a child on Paul Bunyan Day.



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