This is how the tall tales of Paul Bunyan are told....

No one knows where Paul Bunyan was really born but most people say he was born in the North Woods, maybe in the state of Maine. When he was little, Paul was so strong he could help his Dad drag up trees from the ground.

Paul Bunyan was so big that when he was old enough to go to school, he couldn't fit inside the school house. Paul's Mom and Dad had to teach Paul everything he needed to know. Paul was so intelligent, in fact, that he was smarter than a whole library full of books! Every one was scared of Paul because he was so big but really Paul was gentle and kind.

When Paul was a little older, he learned how to ride logs down the river. When he was old enough, Paul went to logging camp to learn how to be a lumberjack. Paul learned to chop down trees because that's what a lumberjack does. The saw made a sound - Zzz, Zzz, Zzz - as it buzzed through the tree trunks. Paul could cut down 25 trees in a row with a double-bitted ax. .

Paul found a crew of men to join his logging team. His crew included a smart man who did the arithmetic - Johnny Inkslinger. The cook who made the delicious desserts was called Cream Puff Fatty. Hot Biscuit Slim and Hot Biscuit Sally were the cooks who were famous for their tasty biscuits. Babe the Blue Ox was Paul's helper and friend (you'll hear about him later). Ole the Big Swede was a large man who was the camp blacksmith. There were quite a lot of other lumberjacks on Paul's logging crew.

Paul found Babe the Blue Ox during the Winter of the Blue Snow. It was an unusual snow because the snow was not white, it was blue! Paul was walking through the woods and found a horn sticking up through the snow. He tried to pick up the horn and found out that a baby ox was buried under the snow. Paul brought him home and took care of him so Babe stayed with Paul. Once, just for a joke, Babe drank all the water in the river!

The story goes that Paul and Babe helped to make parts of the United States. Paul cleared the trees off of the state of North Dakota, carved the Big Sur in California with his son Little Jean, and made the Grand Canyon by dragging his ax along the land. Paul Bunyan is said to have straightened out the curves in the Mississippi River with the help of Babe the Blue Ox.

The meals at Paul Bunyan's logging camp were enormous. The cook had to make gigantic pots of vegetable soup to feed all of the men. The helpers strapped pieces of bacon on their feet to grease the griddle to make flapjacks which were served with maple syrup. One helper drove the ketchup wagon so much that he got tired of it so he dumped all of the ketchup into a river which is now called the Red River. One night the cooks made so much food that the men didn't think they could eat it all - but Cream Puff Fatty and the rest of the cooks made a gigantic batch of cream puffs. The men saw them and cried "Yay! We love cream puffs!" and ate them all up.

You can still see Paul's footprints in the North Woods. You can still hear him shout "Timber" as he logs trees. You can still smell the piney smell of the trees he cuts. If you feel a cool breeze, it may be Paul breathing. Here in Wisconsin, we still love to eat cream puffs and flapjacks!

The tall tales of Paul Bunyan continue to be told even today in the North Woods.