The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan: As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North Woods from Maine to California; Collected from Various Sources and Embellished for PublicationLaughead, William B.
General
The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan: As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North Woods from Maine to California; Collected from Various Sources and Embellished for Publication
Laughead, William B.
Bunyan, Paul (Legendary character)
At Paul's camp up where the little Gimlet empties into the Big Auger,
newcomers used to kick because they were never served beans. The bosses
and the men could never be interested in beans. E. E. Terrill tells us
the reason:
Once when the cook quit they had to detail a substitute to the job
temporarily. There was one man who was no good anywhere. He had failed
at every job. Chris Crosshaul, the foreman, acting on the theory that
every man is good _somewhere_, figured that this guy must be a cook, for
it was the only job he had not tried. So he was put to work and the
first thing he tackled was beans. He filled up a big kettle with beans
and added some water. When the heat took hold the beans swelled up till
they lifted off the roof and bulged out the walls. There was no way to
get into the place to cook anything else, so the whole crew turned in to
eat up the half cooked beans. By keeping at it steady they cleaned them
up in a week and rescued the would-be-cook. After that no one seemed to
care much for beans.
[Illustration]
It used to be a big job to haul prune pits and coffee grounds away from
Paul's camps. It required a big crew of men and either Babe or Benny to
do the hauling. Finally Paul decided it was cheaper to build new camps
and move every month.
The winter Paul logged off North Dakota with the Seven Axemen, the
Little Chore Boy and the 300 cooks, he worked the cooks in three
shifts--one for each meal. The Seven Axemen were hearty eaters; a
portion of bacon was one side of a 1600-pound pig. Paul shipped a
stern-wheel steamboat up Red River and they put it in the soup kettle to
stir the soup.
Like other artists, cooks are temperamental and some of them are full of
cussedness but the only ones who could sass Paul Bunyan and get away
with it were the stars like Big Joe and Sourdough Sam.
[Illustration]
The lunch sled,--most popular institution in the lumber industry! It's
arrival at the noon rendezvous has been hailed with joy by hungry men on
every logging job since Paul invented it. What if the warm food freezes
on your tin plate, the keen cold air has sharpened your appetite to
enjoy it. The crew that toted lunch for Paul Bunyan had so far to travel
and so many to feed they hauled a complete kitchen on the lunch sled,
cooks and all.
* * * * *
OVER thirty years ago The Red River Lumber Company, foreseeing the end
of their White Pine which was reached in 1915, set out to find the pine
that would supply a trade that demands the qualities found in White
Pine. All the forests of North America were examined and exhaustively
studied and the selection was Sugar Pine and California White
Pine,--"the largest pines that ever grew" and production started at
Westwood in 1914.
[Illustration]
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