Bangor
Maine
August 2012
We visit Paul Bunyan in Bangor, the real Paul Bunyan. Just like the real Paul Bunyan in Portland, Oregon, the two real Paul Bunyans in Minnesota, the one in California and the one in Michigan. Each state claims their Paul Bunyan is the real one.
Bangoreans, Bangorites, Bangormans, whatever… Folks from Bangor claim that their home town is the birthplace of the lumber industry and therefore logically, the birthplace of that fabled lumberman, Paul Bunyan. So it is appropriate that there is a 37-foot tall statue of you-know-who on Main Street at the Bangor Civic Center.
Paul is standing in the middle of a big construction project, with his checkered red and black shirt, heavy work boots, double-bit ax over his shoulder and a Bangor rafting peavey in his other hand. Big beard, big smile. Far more personality than the Paul in Portland, Oregon. No ox though, blue or otherwise.
We want to get up close so we try to get around the high chain link construction fence. Before we even round the gate, a friendly voice calls out to us, “I can’t let you in here.” We turn around and there is the burly site foreman, standing on the steps of the construction site trailer office. I’d like to describe his checkered red and black shirt, heavy work boots, double-bit ax over his shoulder and a Bangor rafting peavey in his other hand and a big beard and big smile, but I would totally be making that up.
“If you want to see the statue best,” he says, “you can go across the street into that parking garage.”
“How could you tell that’s what we were doing here?” I ask whimsically.
“I’m a trained professional,” he says.
After hearing his friendly advice, we feel compelled to go into the garage across the street. We must climb up to the third floor to get face to face with Paul.
Some statues give me the willies. Not sure why, not sure I care. I generally don’t seek them out. However, Mr Bunyan is not known for creepiness, so here we are. Perhaps it’s weird that statue faces don’t move? And yet, at the same time, if they were to move, I’d go screaming through the streets. This Paul however, is the friendliest human likeness I’ve ever encountered in statue life. Which is ironic as Paul never existed as a human.
Don’t get me started about clowns.
So. Paul Bunyan. We were in Maine, visiting Lisa’s family. They drove us to the “world’s largest Paul Bunyan statue” in Bangor. There is a “world’s largest Paul Bunyan statue” in Akeley, Minnesota too. Hard to tell who is exaggerating. Paul stands 31 feet high in Bangor and 25 feet high in Akeley, although in Akeley, he is kneeling. If he were to stand, he would definitely be the world’s tallest Paul Bunyan, but he would still be merely a very large mythical man.
This “world’s largest Paul Bunyan” business, whether standing in Bangor or kneeling in Akeley, is all just horse puckey, hooey, false claims. Because Paul stands 49 feet tall in Klamath, California. (Klamath Paul — you don’t have to look closely — has a perpetually creepy vibe around his facial features. Not pretty.)
When the real Paul Bunyan was born, not the statue, he was so large that it took five storks to bring him to his mother and father. As he grew, his parents faced all sorts of problems due to Paul’s oversized size, including the inability to house him. Every time he rolled over in his sleep, he caused an earthquake. When the neighbors complained, Paul’s father took him into the woods to live and that’s when Paul began to chop trees.
In Maine, it snows. A lot. One time though, the snow was blue! Paul went out to see what the heck that was about. Upon investigation, he discovered an ox stuck in the snow. Freeing him, Paul took him home and named him Babe. Once in the warmth of the cabin, the blue snow melted off the ox. Babe, oddly, remained blue.
Babe was enormous and strong, a perfect match for Paul. They kind of became partners. One time, Paul had some trouble removing trees along a curving road so he tied one end of the road to a tree stump and tied the other end to Babe. Babe dug in and pulled with his impressive strength, straightening out the road, thus providing easy chopping for Paul. Good ox.
Mr Bunyan eventually decided to move west, scooping out the Great Lakes along the way to provide drinking water for Babe. This is why the Great Lakes are fresh water and not salt water. Paul settled in Minnesota for a while.
One Minnesota winter, it got so cold, words would freeze in mid-air soon’s they came out of peoples’ mouths. Come springtime, the words thawed out and folks were able to catch up with each other’s news.
Later Paul, and Babe cleared North Dakota and South Dakota of trees to open up that area for farming.