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)
"What's the use," said Paul, "of all this sawing, swamping, skidding,
decking, grading and icing roads, loading, hauling and landing? The
object of the game is to get the trees to the landing, ain't it? Well,
why not do it and get it off your mind?"
So he hitched Babe to a section of land and snaked in the whole 640
acres at one drag. At the landing the trees were cut off just like
shearing a sheep and the denuded section hauled back to it's original
place. This simplified matters and made the work a lot easier. Six trips
a day, six days a week just cleaned up a township for section 37 was
never hauled back to the woods on Saturday night but was left on the
landing to wash away in the early spring when the drive went out.
Documentary evidence of the truth of this is offered by the United
States government surveys. Look at any map that shows the land
subdivisions and you will never find a township with more than
thirty-six sections.
[Illustration: Westwood, Cal. Dec. 32 (Special) Hauling in the last
section 37 in California today. Brimstone Bill, the bullwhacker in
charge of Babe, the Big Blue Ox, met with an accident that would have
been fatal but for the prompt action of Paul Bunyan. The section skidded
on a bad turn and buried Brimstone against the mountain side. Mr. Bunyan
hitched Babe to the mountain and pulled it away, releasing Brimstone who
is recovering in the Westwood Hospital.]
The foregoing statement, previously published, has caused some
controversy. Mr. T. S. Sowell of Miami, Florida wrote to us citing the
townships in his State that have sections numbered 37 to 40. He said
that the government survey had been complicated by the old Spanish land
grants. We put the matter up to Paul Bunyan and from his camp near
Westwood came this reply:
Red River Advertising Department.
Dear Sir: Yes sir, I remember those sections and a lot of
bother they made me too. One winter when I was starting the
White Pine business and snaking sections down to the Atlantic
Ocean, a man from Florida came along and ordered a bunch of
sections delivered down to his place. He wanted to see if he
could grow the same kind of White Pine down there. I yarded out
a nice bunch of sections and next summer when my drive was in
and I wasn't busy I took a crew of Canada Boys and Mainites and
poled them down the coast. When I come to collect they said
this man was gone looking for a Fountain of Youth or some fool
thing.
I don't know what luck he had with his White Pine ranch. I
never seen them again. I had a lot of other things to tend to
and clean forgot it till you sent me Mr. Sowell's letter. Maybe
that man was a Spaniard I don't know.
Yours respectively,
P. BUNYAN.
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