Paul Bunyan, giant lumberjack, hailing from Bemidji, Minnesota, it a symbol of bigness, strength, and vitality. The tales and anecdotes that form the Paul Bunyan legend are typical of the tradition of frontier tall tales. Paul and his companions, Babe the Blue Ox and Johnny Inkslinger, are undismayed by rains that last for months, giant mosquitoes, or adverse geography. The tales describe how Paul, who fashions lakes and rivers at will, created the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. They celebrate the lumbermen’s prodigious appetites. Paul’s camp stove covers an acre, and his hotcake griddle is so large that it is greased by men using sides of bacon for skates.
What is it that draws millions to the legends of Paul Bunyan? Some say it is the constellation of characters Paul assembled – people like Sourdough Sam; Cream Puff Fatty, and the other cooks; Johnny Inkslinger, the brilliant poet, accountant and all-round deep thinker; Babe of course, with his gargantuan feats of strength; and Sport, the reversible dog.
For some it is the amazing yet often disputed facts that we admire most about Paul and Babe. Facts such as…
- Paul Bunyan was 63 ax handles tall.
- Paul Bunyan had a frying pan that covered an area of one acre, which was used to make pancakes. The cooks greased the pan by ice skating across the griddle with sides of bacon strapped to their skates.
- Babe was 42 ax handles wide from the tip of one horn to the tip of the other horn.
- It took a crow a day to fly from one Babe’s horn tips to the other.
- Babe could eat 30 bales of hay, wires and all, in a day.
- Paul Bunyan and Babe created the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. Their footsteps created impressions in the land that filled with rainwater, forming lakes throughout the state. Want more proof– just check out the shape of Lake Bemidji (shaped like the top of Paul’s boot) and Lake Irving (shaped like the heel).
- Paul Bunyan once trained giant 2,000 pound ants. Each ant could each do the work of 50 men.
(Taken from Visit Bemidji and Encyclopedia Britannica)
With this stories and many, many more, we wanted to honour the great history of Paul and his friends in Minnesota with the 2019 Minneapolis theme: Paul Bunyan!
The first jersey is obviously Paul himself!
The Inaugural Minneapolis Draft Tournament is currently SOLD OUT, but you can sign up for the waitlist here, or you can register for Los Angeles before it sells out too!
