Paul Bunyan is one of the most famous American heroes in folklore. He was a giant of a man who worked as a lumberjack from his native Bangor, Maine to Fosston, Minnesota. He a carried a large double-sided axe and travelled with his faithful companion Babe, the blue ox. He was known throughout the lumber belt of North America running from the North Eastern States through Eastern Canada.  The first published story about Paul Bunyan and his blue ox was published in 1906 by a Northern Michigan journalist named James MacGillwary. Paul Bunyan has statues in Akeley, Minnesota and Bangor, Maine. Some of his feats are:

He dug out the great lakes to give his companion Babe the blue ox a drink. He dug the Grand Canyon while crossing through the area dragging his axe behind him. He created Mount Hood by piling rocks on top of one another for a camp fire pit.

Cordwood Peter is the younger brother of Paul Bunyan and was only 4 foot 9 inches tall but was as strong as an ox, no pun intended. They teased him saying that he hadn’t grown any because Paul ate all the flapjacks and there were none left for him. Peter followed his brother to Fosston, Minnesota where he took the job of a lumberjack. The local lumberjacks gave him the nick name “La Dang Cordwood Peter” and they soon learned that he was hot tempered and full of spunk. The men admired his feistiness and wouldn’t fight him. One evening after an extreme bout of ribbing, he borrowed his brother Paul’s double-bladed axe and swung it. It swung and spun as if held up by magic and when it stopped spinning, 100 acres of trees had been felled. The railroad engineer hired him on the spot and the next day before sunset, he cleared a path of 50 square miles of timber for the railroad. After he cleared the 50 squares miles for the railway, he returns the axe to his brother. He would never achieve a feat so great again. He died in Fosston at the age of 89. No one would have known about this man and his connection to Paul had it not been for a work-crew tearing down an old building in 2001. In the wall of the crumbling building were some time capsules and among the treasures they found was this story adding to the legends of Paul Bunyan. The reason these two men is so popular is that the working class can identify with them, especially those working in the lumber industry.

Johnny Kaw was a Kansas settler and a friend of Paul Bunyan who was the subject of a number of the tales of Paul Bunyan. He was suppose to have dug the Kansas River Valley while planting wheat on his land; invented sunflowers and grew giant potatoes. Two of the state universities have mascots named after his pets; a wild cat and jay hawk. These pets fought one another and are said to have caused the Kansas Dust Bowls.