BUNYAN IN CANADA
MAYBE, THERE AIN'T NO SUCH PERSON, Y'KNOW?—what been in so many places all at once, and seen so much of this continent, than Paul Bunyan. Oh, he logged in Maine on Sunday. He skidded in Wisconsin by Monday. He drove in Minnesota by Tuesday. He swamped in Michigan by Wednesday. He sawed in California by Thursday. He cruised in Oregon by Friday. He hauled in Washington by Saturday.
Now, it was then a new week, and where was Paul? Why, he was back up in ole Canada, of course! Not sure what he done, but, knowin' Paul like I do, for sure as I am standing here, for sure as the tide goes in and out, he weren't restin' on no Sunday.
Well, anyways, the land of downhome snow was a right interestin' country for Paul. Now, Paul, why, he originally come on down from up North, y'know? If I had to figure, maybe, he must've had some unfinished business left to be attendin' to. Or, probably having some free time on his hands, well, I guess, he figure he trace his steps to the very place he was born. Why not, eh?
Well, while in town, Paul, boy oh boy! He ain't change none, up to the same old stuff again. But before we get into all that, why don't we take a look back, eh? See, because why Paul, his stories, they were spoken a good long while before theys get to making them into books. But it was in good ol' lumberjack country, what was one of the first times Paul, he ever did see his name in print.
YUP, all the way back in 1900 or there abouts, unless I misremember. Before then, there weren't hardly no such a thing. Well, sure enough:
“Paul Bunyan the well known horseman of Stanwood, Wash., was a passenger arriving by the steamer Monarch yesterday.”
Now, I'll be a six-legged si'mese cat nursin' off of loon's milk, if'n there ain't someone, who what is reading this, gonna say, incidentally, “That ain't no folktale and weren't exactly Canadian neither!” as on account, what it mentions Paul, he was commin' from over there from Washington, y'know? Well, sir, I don't aim to disappoint. So, I got anotheren here what come about the same time, and 'bout near before Paul ever got his name into the papers anywhere else, for sure. Y'know, I am sure you all have heard tell 'bout folks who what con others out of all what they got? Well, can't be nobody like Paul who what can con a man into some money. Some folk now, they don't got the horse sense the good Lord gave a stubborn pack mule. Such as what gone happen in this here story:
“Charley Anderson is one of the best known early pioneers in the Klondike. He is the owner of 29 Eldorado and the history of how he came to own it is an interesting page in local mining history. In the winter of '96-7 Anderson was at Fortmile when two men of sporting proclivities, one of who was Paul Bunyon, approached him with a proposition to buy 29 on Eldorado. Anderson was not disposed to invest, but by getting him filled up on a rather vigorous brand of hootch which was at Fortymile in those days, Anderson became somewhat reckless and was induced to pay $800 for the claim. On sobering up and realizing what he had done, remorse possessed him and he begged, pleaded and cried to have the $800 refunded to him, but to no avail. His friends seriously considered the advisability of holding a meeting, organizing and forcing the two men to refund the money they had ‘fleeced’ from Anderson, but nothing was done and Anderson nursed his grievance, swearing to profit by his experience. When the spring of '97 came and big cleanups were made on Eldorado, Anderson began to prospect his property with results which are well known. In the next three years upwards of $800,000 (> +$18M AFI) in gold was taken from Anderson's claim and from a common miner he became a Klondike millionaire, but remained as always, popular and well liked by all who knew him.”
Incidentally, I think I recollect what Paul, he, was doing on Sunday— that there.
So, if you are one of those what are so broke they can't afford to pay attention, hopefully, I got your attention now. Well, now, to get on back right 'bout where we was. So, Bunyan, why, everybody knowed him in Canada, yes sir, just right 'bout as long as in the States. In fact, a J.D. Robins, folklorist of note, spoke about Bunyan a good deal having heard stories and such over round near the Soo. Little J.D. would listen to all kinds of stories from loggers on Lake Superior's North Shore and 'cross the ways in Michigan. In fact, he wrote in what is called The Canadian Forum, what where he say it like this:
“... Paul Bunyan had become the conventional name attached to the central figure of a certain group of yarns, and of a certain type of story, the story of enormous exaggeration, then and possibly still popular in the lumber camps all across the continent ...
This figure is the Gargantuan Paul, in whose actual existence, of course, nobody really believes. But there is, after all, another Paul, a very useful man, whom for the moment I might call the ‘confidential Paul,’ used where necessary, to bolster up the greehorn's faith in Gargantuan Paul. ...
The logger will readily admit, too, that Paul was not by any means as strong as that fool liar tried to make out. Still, Paul was a remarkably powerful and agile man in his prime. The logger has seen him handle two barrels of salt at once without any apparent difficulty. When in good shape, moreover, Paul has been known time and again to jump up in the air, kick both caulked feet against the ceiling, and come down again on a chalked mark. There follows after the acceptance of this proof of agility the confidential assertion that Paul could blow out the bunkhouse latern and be in his bunk before it was dark. The Paul of these more plausible yarns is this ‘cofidential Paul,’ mentioned above.”
—J.D. Robins, “Paul Bunyan,” The Canadian Forum, February, 1926, vol. VI, no. 65, Toronto, Ontario
Now, what Robbins was talkin' 'bout makes ya think. 'Cause Robbins brought up a right interestin' point. See, J.D. say that folk who talk tell 'bout Paul Bunyan talk about two different fellas. One called, “confidential Paul,” what we'll cut down to “Confident Paul,” and the otheren what called, “Gargantuan Paul,” or so we'll say “Tall Paul”.
Now, all what ya hear 'bout Paul, is true, it's a fact, what it is, A FACT.
But there are some doubtful kind of folk who what can't believe all what Paul can do. So, what them storytellers, they do is start talkin' bout Confident Paul who what can do half or quarter about what Paul Bunyan can really do. Kind of lean them into it, make them accept just that much before movin' on further, y'know? Then, when they are all acceptin' like, what when come Tall Paul who can do all what Paul Bunyan can do and then some.
Now, speakin' of two Pauls, ya wanna hear somethin' crazy? So back, up in Creston, British Columbia, around 1900, what enters the curious case of Aldard Laserte.
'Cept the thing 'bout this fella is didn't nobody call him no Aldard Laserte, oh no sir, see he and everybody else knew him as—
“PAUL BUNYON GETS SEND OFF
We the undersigned of noble birth, but humble occupation, and citizens of the glorious Kootenay, learn with sincere regret that and of our members, Mr. Paul Bunyon, nee Laccaste, of Blue Ox Fame, is about to leave us and go out into the cold and cruel world unprotected and alone. We deem it proper and fit that we show appreciation of the noble work he has accomplished while among us. He has not built up nor tore down empiree, but has kept the bartenders and breweries working overtime. We one and all therefore wish him God speed and a light pack on his long and tedious journey.
J.H. Brown, W.C. Forrester, Harry Leonard, R. Walmsey, Geo. Mead, Thos. Ross, D. Cameron, A. Cockerill, G, Pacey, G. Smith, Sam Hatfield, F. K. Hurry, Geo Hendren, D. S. Timmons, J. Baines, L. Richardson, R. M. Reid, Thos. W. Bundy, H.S. McCreath E. Malladaine, R. M. Telford, M. McCarthy, W. H. Crawford, J. A. Lidgate, J. P. Johnston, A. L. Dundas, F. G. Little, R. S. Bevan, Dr. G. B. Henderson, W. A. Heron.”
Now, I'm not sure if Paul Bunyan is being Aldard Laserte or Aldard Laserte is being Paul Bunyan. But the point to be made is there was by all accounts a flesh-and-blood Paul Bunyan in the town of Creston at the turn of the century. Who was this Paul Bunyan character? Nothing is known for sure. Apart from brief mentions in the papers, information gets scarce. It is known that as far as being Paul Bunyan, he, if he wasn't, was about as close to being Paul as one could get. From what can be gathered Paul was noted for his great physical strength and his ability to get drunk was proverbial. Above all, he was adored by no few of his fellow countrymen. He was by all accounts—“Confident Paul.”
Well, Confident Paul lived in Creston for about seven years. Eventually, it came that Confident Paul passed in Creston abruptly after supper at the Creston Hotel of possible heart failure. All else what is known of his early life is what can be gathered from his obituary:
“Of the departed nothing definite is known. As the name indicates he was a French Canadian, about 55 years of age, haling from Montreal, in which city he graduated successfully at a dental college, and for a time practised his profession in eastern Canada. He comes of a family of some note from which he had a small income from funds invested for him. With his income from the source Paul led a more or less bohemian existence, working at odd jobs of any sort at time to augment his revenues, though for the last six months he has been steadily employed by Messrs. Lewis and Meade. ...
In the passing of Mons. Laserte Creston loses one of its foremost celebrities, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier one of his staunchest admirers. The departed had made his home in these parts for about seven years, and his death will be heard of with regret by an army of friends and not a solitary enemy, so great, was his good nature. ”
Whoever he may have been exactly we cannot say. But to one thing we are certain. Who Paul Bunyan is is subject to the perceptions of a people, a place and a time. To lumberjacks of late nineteenth century, Paul was an ode to the common man, their hero and the pro exemplar of the old times. In the early twentieth century, Paul Bunyan was little more than a colossal mascot who towered over trees to sell the products of advertisers. And, still, the Paul Bunyan as we known him today, in the twenty-first century, is certainly a different figure than either of the two.
Now, for all you non-believers believe this. It is a matter of historical record, in the quiet logging town of Creston, at the turn of the last century, for however briefly, Paul Bunyan was no subject of fiction, no figure of fantasy, no marketing gimmick, but a living breathing person who walked the same streets, went to the same taverns and slept under the same stars same as everybody else, even as you or me.
And, as fate would have it, Confident Paul now lives on about a hundred years later in story, the same one presented before you today, just as his counterpart Tall Paul lived in the tall tales told about a hundred years ago, their two destinies finally coming in full circle, now intertwined as one.
Well, 'round the same time as old Confident Paul was laborin' up in Creston, the old-time lumberjack, himself, was gettin' right near extinct.
Yup, fer sher, heard right, extinct, mm-hmm, what I said, extinct.
See, trucks had replaced oxen for hauling logs, trains replaced rivers for taken logs to mills and it was not long at all the axe falls, well they was disappearin' before a chorus of chainsaws. Now, Paul, Tall Paul, he had been loggin' the exact same way for many a year, before most could remember. To many, Paul he was the symbol of the old times. And Paul that great changeless hero, what had been lumberin' for so long, well, you might say change was his undoin', yup, and I do say.
Y'know, after writers ran out of lumberjack stories about Paul Bunyan to put into books, they made up stories of their own. But folklore is the product, often unknowingly, of a people over time, and it is a process that cannot simply be recreated by one or a few. It's unfortunate, but the truth is that Paul Bunyan, Tall Paul, died with the last of those regular, old-fashioned, stoytellin' lumberjacks.
On the other hand, Confident Paul, now, his life was remembered, and his death mourned. He was laid to rest in Creston with all the honors deserving of his station. And, the people of Creston, they got to say, “au revoir” to their Confident Paul.
“The funeral of late Adlard Laserte, more commonly known as “Paul Bunion,” took place on Sunday from Hedron's undertaking parlors to the R.C. cemetery, Father John conducting the services. Quite a number of friends turned out to pay their last respects.”
It then follows, and seems only fitting, that we, ourselves, gathered here today, do the same and pay equal respects for his counterpart. Next, we lay rest to our Tall Paul.
* * *
TALES
Anybody who knew Paul would have said that the only way to end his life would have been to hit him over the head with a giant Redwood. But the fact of the mater is that Paul died of a broken heart.
Everybody remembers the Big Wind. It seems we'll never quite recover from it, because it rubbed trees together so hard that the friction caused the first forest fire, the descendants of which are multiplying annually at a tremendous rate. Anyway, on the day of the Big Wind, Paul was cleaning his fingernails with a pine tree behind the cook house when the Chore Boy came running out and told him that the sap in the trees must have fermented because they acted drunk. He said he'd been watching out the kitchen window and that the trees, one at a time, would turn completely over, burying their branches in the ground and leaving the roots in the air.
Well sir, that was just what was happening, but it wasn't drunkedness—it was the wind. And the worst of it was that Paul couldn't stop it. He tried to throw a chain around the wind and tow it back with the Blue Ox, and he tried blowing it back, and a dozen and one other things, but all to no avail. And then, suddenly, there was a big noise in the woods just ahead of the wind and something the like of which Paul had never seen before, came snorting through the trees.
You know, of course, that it was a tractor, but it was a new one on Paul. Well sir, that tractor pushed it's nose into the wind and stopped it completely, and the wind turned right around and went back where it came from, turning all the trees right side up as it went. As for Paul—well, Paul died of a broken heart, and the tractor has taken his place as the mightiest thing in the timber. ”
—R. H. Mulch, “Logging Tractors Are Modern Need in Bush Work,” Canada Lumberman, January 15, 1928, vol. 48, no. 2, Toronto, Ontario
* * *
Sir: In all this talk about Paul Bunyan no one had given him credit for two of his biggest jobs—that is, the excavation of Alberni and Portland canals on the west coast of this province. The time when Paul, with his Blue Ox, was in public works contracting is unknown to me, and I don't think Bill ever went into those details but after the successful completion of the above two jobs he went broke on the excavation of Puget Sound and never completed the work, hence the shallowness of the upper waters.
Yours etc.,
GILBERT C. TASSIE.
Vernon, B.C.”
—Gilbert C. Tassie, “Paul Bunyan Again,” The Canadian Forum, vol. VI, No. 69, June, 1926, Toronto, Ontario
* * *
Sir:
It may be interesting to readers of the Paul Bunyan article contributed last month by Mr. Robins to learn that, in addition to his lumbering activities, Paul was also a great railway contractor. We who were on the construction of the G. T. P. [Grand Trunk Pacific Railway] were told that he took it up because with the depletion of the pine forests he ran out of timber big enough to make peavie handles; also, of course, he realized that the blue ox (we never heard of him as ‘Babe’) would be able to pull a real grading machine, [device that flattens the surface that railways are built] that ploughed sixty-eight furrows at once much better than the ordinary complement of twelve to sixteen mules could pull the little one-furrow machines that the contractors used.
Stories of his exploits as a contractor were common during the construction in 1907 and 1908. We noticed, for instance, that the prarie trails had three ruts instead of two: the horse runs in the middle one and he buggy-wheels in the two outer. This was because Paul Bunyan, when he made them, used a wagon with three wheels; otherwise the load that the blue ox pulled always broke the axle. He had a cook-tent, too, as big as the orginal ‘big bunkhouse’, so big, indeed, that he had to wait on the table himself riding on a white horse and with a coffeepot in each hand. The coffee he spilled accounted for the colour of the slough water [backwater swamps].
‘Side-hill gougers’ were common on the prairie, their bones are to be found on the tops of hills, because when they become weak they can only run uphill, so that they always die at the top. Some of the teamsters, when they got to the mountains the following year, built or modeled a 'hodag' at the Yellowhead Pass (known locally as the ‘Ti Jean’, never ‘Tête Jaune’). This animal had horns on its head made of twisted timbers, and a clay body carefully smoothed with shovel and fingers. Its spine bore a crest of buffalo horns transported from the prairie in many dunnage-bags and eagerly contributed for the occasion. It was a fearsome beast. A photograph was made of the hodag, and one of the engineers sent a copy to the British Museum with a letter saying that it had come into his possession and that he would like to know what sort of animal it was. The experts, however, were not to be ‘had’ and replied that it resembled no known animal, living or fossil, but might be an Indian idol. To my untrained eye it look very like a stegosaurus with a few additional horns and excrescences.
It was once my privelege to see a chip from Paul Bunyan's old broad-axe that he threw away when he went contracting. It had been reforged into a very large wheel-scraper [an earth moving device] and was being used by a contractor near Wainwright. This was, of course, only a very small chip: Paul could have ground his axe and got to work again without missing a stroke.
Now, Shorty was my authority for the authenticity of the axe, and Shorty went to France with the famous Twenty-Second Battallion. It would be unnatural to suppose that he could not point to holes in the ground on the Somme that were caused, not by shells, but byt the feet of the blue ox bringing up Paul’s big howitzer. I do not believe that Paul Bunyan 'passed with the changing conditions'; he had only moved on a little.
Yours etc.,
C.M. STEWART
Engineering Department,
Canadian National Railways.
Vernon, B.C.”
—C.M. Stewart, “Paul Bunyan,” The Canadian Forum, vol. VI, No. 66, March, 1926, Toronto, Ontario
[ DISCLOSURE: THE FOLLOWING IS REAL!—believe me—READER INDISCRETION IS ADVISED! ]
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