PAUL BUNYAN

Tournaments announced for GigaZone Gaming Championship, TechXpo

Pioneer Staff Report — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 19:39:14 GMT

BEMIDJI — Paul Bunyan Communications has announced Rocket League and other tournaments at the 2025 GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo set for Saturday, April 12, at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

Special guest Duncan Wardle, Former Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney, will present at 2 p.m. The event will also feature free gaming on various arcade games and pinball machines, numerous tournaments with over $9,500 in cash prizes, a cosplay contest, door prizes and more.

This year’s main stage tournament will feature Rocket League on the esports stadium-style stage in the GigaZone Championship Arena, Paul Bunyan Communications announced in a release.

Rocket League is a video game that combines arcade-style soccer and driving games. Players control rocket-powered vehicles to score goals with a giant soccer ball. Gameplay can be chaotic as vehicles can flip and fly in all directions.

The main stage Rocket League tournament will be a three-person team competition with a 16-team maximum.

New this year, Paul Bunyan Communications is adding a Rocket League tournament for high school esports teams. It is a three-person team double elimination tournament with a 16-team maximum. ��s interested in registering for this tournament should visit gigazonegaming.com for more information.

In addition to the main stage, there will be tournaments for Fortnite, Madden NFL 24, Valorant, Magic The Gathering Booster Drafts, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and junior tournaments for those 13 and younger of Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

All those who want to enter a tournament will need to create a GigaZone Gaming Player Profile prior to registration at the event. This will expedite the onsite registration process to allow the tournaments to start earlier. This can be done online at gigazonegaming.com.

Registration for all tournaments will start at 10 a.m. on April 12 at the Sanford Center and go until full. It is free to enter the tournaments.

At the TechXpo, start-ups and companies creatively leveraging technology will be able to demonstrate their innovation to a large group of tech-savvy potential employees. Educators and educational institutions will have their tech-oriented students show off projects and promote the technology training programs they have to offer.

This Paul Bunyan Communications event includes the talents of many local partners, including NLFX, Accidentally Cool Games, Northern Amusement, the Sanford Center, as well as support from several regional and national partners, the release said.

For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship, visit gigazonegaming.com.

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Parks and Rec to hold Paul Bunyan Lookalike Contest Feb. 12

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 22:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — The city of Bemidji Parks and Recreation Department will celebrate Paul Bunyan's birthday from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12, at the Tourist Information Center.

Participants should wear their best Paul Bunyan costume for the chance to win a prize sponsored by Visit Bemidji, a release said.

Attendees can also play games, eat cupcakes from Monica’s Heavenly Sweet Treats and get three photos taken with Babe for $10.

This event is free and open to the public.

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Disney's Duncan Wardle to speak at Paul Bunyan Communications' TechXpo event

Pioneer Staff Report — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Duncan Wardle, former Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney, will be the guest at Paul Bunyan Communications' GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo, set for April 12 at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

Wardle helped teams at Disney Parks, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Pixar, Imagineering and Animation to innovate, creating magical new storylines and amazing experiences for consumers around the globe.

From sending Buzz Lightyear into space on a space shuttle, creating an Olympic-sized swimming pool for Michael Phelps to swim down Main Street USA at Disneyland, and creating the Super Bowl halftime show for the new Millennium, Wardle has given life to some of the biggest ideas imaginable, a release said.

Wardle has been a TEDx speaker multiple times, is a frequent contributor to Fast Company, Harvard Business Review and Forbes, and teaches Innovation and Creativity Masterclasses at Yale and Harvard Universities.

He also holds the American Citizen Award presented at the White House, an Honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh University and the Duke of Edinburgh Award, presented by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.

"We are so excited to have Duncan Wardle as our special guest this year," said Chad Bullock, Paul Bunyan Communications incoming CEO and general manager, in the release. "His work at Disney touched so many different facets of technology from films to their theme parks to events."

As a special guest at the TechXpo, Wardle will speak at 2 p.m. on the main stage. A Q&A session will follow. He will also be a judge for the Greater Bemidji Northstar Pitch Competition.

The mission of the GigaZone TechXpo is to spark excitement and create opportunities with technology by connecting students and job seekers with employers, educators and technology enthusiasts from across northern Minnesota, the release said.

There is no cost to be an exhibitor as a school or business but space is limited and the exhibit must display their use of technology. Applications open Jan. 3 and must be submitted by Feb. 28 at gigazonetechxpo.com.

The event will also feature free gaming on various console and arcade games, numerous tournaments, door prizes and more. There is no cost to enter the tournaments or for any of the gaming. Tournament details will be posted on the GigaZone Gaming Discord, Twitch channel and Facebook page as well as gigazonegaming.com.

New to the event this year is the GigaZone Gaming High �� Invitational, a Rocket League tournament exclusively for High �� esports teams. ��s interested should contact Fenworks at fenworks.com/contact-us.

The event showcases Paul Bunyan Communications' IT and web development team, which custom-built and integrated much of the online technology being used, and leverages the speed of the GigaZone, one of the largest rural all-fiber optic gigabit networks in the country, the release said. The entire gaming event is run off a single residential GigaZone Internet connection.

This Paul Bunyan Communications event includes many local partners including NLFX, Accidentally Cool Games, Northern Amusement, the Sanford Center, as well as support from several regional and national partners, the release said.

For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship, visit gigazonegaming.com.

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Akeley will celebrate 75th Paul Bunyan Days June 28-30

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:16:00 GMT

The statue of Paul Bunyan on State Hwy. 34 in Akeley will be at the center of this weekend’s 75th annual Paul Bunyan Days celebration. While most people know the legend of the giant logger, the story of how the statue was created by Dean Krotzer and his family is not as well known.

The Krotzer family moved to the Akeley area in 1983 from Saint Bonifacius in southern Minnesota. Dean Krotzer was a self-taught artist who had created large sculptures before.

When he heard the story about how Akeley was the birthplace of Paul Bunyan and saw Paul’s giant cradle along Hwy. 34, he thought Paul Bunyan should be there too.

“My dad, Dean, was born in 1931, so he would have been 93 on June 30 and his birthday would have been during Paul Bunyan Days this year,” daughter Deana (Krotzer) Tranby said. “He died in 2011. My mom, Beverly Krotzer, is 92 and lives with my sister Sally and near the other Krotzer families south of Akeley.”

She said her dad never had any formal training as a sculptor.

“He built a statue of Christ in Byron, Minn., and lots of other statues,” she said. “He's been a sculptor and artist his whole life. It was amazing. There wasn't anything he couldn't do. Besides building sculptures, he did everything from building houses to making kitchen cabinets, tables, beds, dressers, candle holders and picture frames.”

Dean also designed and built castles for Renaissance Fairs.

“We've got castles in Boston, New York, Chicago, Arizona and Colorado,” Dean’s daughter Sally said. “They are 70 or 80 feet long. There’s also one at the Renaissance Fair in Minnesota.”

Deana was 9 when the statue building took place and 10 when it was finished.

“Dad saw the cradle uptown and said "If this is the birthplace of Paul Bunyan, then Akeley should have Paul Bunyan here,” she said. “He wanted to make the world's largest Paul Bunyan, but he also wanted to make one that was welcoming to the public. If Paul Bunyan was made standing up, he would be the largest. Because he's kneeling down, he's not the largest, but dad made him that way so people could sit in his hand.”

An idea takes shape

Sally Krotzer was working in the Akeley family business, Wood Arts Studio, when the idea for the Paul Bunyan statue began.

“Dad was talking with Nels Kramer one day about how Akeley was the birthplace of Paul Bunyan,” she said. “Nels Kramer had a little museum there in Akeley and they were talking about how there should be a statue of Paul Bunyan in Akeley too. The town gave dad some money to build the statue, and my dad and my brothers put in a lot of money to finish it.”

She remembers her dad sketching out the design and making a clay model as part of the creative design process.

"First he made a little statue out of clay in his shop,” she said. “After that, he drew a picture of the statue. He designed it himself. I was there when he did it. A couple of months later they started to build the statue. My brothers Steve, Jim, Bruce, Peter and Sam helped dad. They all built it together, along with brother-in-laws Jim Krobetz and Michael Carpenter.”

Sally said that building the statue took over a year.

Creating Paul

Deana remembers her brother Bruce, who was 29 at the time, kneeling down like Paul Bunyan so Dean could take measurements that then multiplied to get the size of each piece of the statue.

“The elbow to the shoulder, how he would hold the ax,” she said. “I remember Bruce sitting in one position for quite awhile while dad would take measurements. I also remember the structure being welded right out in our yard down by my dad's garage. I'd sneak out there when they weren't around. There was a ladder that went all the way up to the head and I would climb up there, even though I wasn't supposed to. I climbed out on the braces to the shoulders, and all around him like it was a jungle gym and then got out of there before anyone saw me."

Sally recalls Paul’s head being made in her brother Jim’s garage.

“The frame was made of steel and fiberglass,” she said. “We used bailing twine for his beard. We used the paint they use for vehicles on the statue so it wouldn’t chip. It looked so bright when it was new. When the statue was done, my dad and my mom Beverly were the grand marshals in the Paul Bunyan Days parade for several years.”

Deana said Dean also gave Paul Bunyan some extra mechanical features. “He built it so the jaw and eyes were able to move and blink and his head could turn,” she said. “I was a kid, so I don't remember why that part wasn't finished.”

Moving Paul to Akeley

“It took two trips to bring Paul uptown,” Deana said, recalling that the head was brought to Akeley in the back of a pickup truck. “They moved the body to town with a tow truck. Once they moved the metal structure of the skeleton uptown, then they started with the fiberglass and the details to finish it there.

She remembers Paul Bunyan’s head was brought to Akeley in the back of a pickup truck, and longtime Akeley resident and logger Red Johnson set it on the body framework with a crane. .

“Once the head was attached, they finished the work on the body with the fiberglass and the painting,” she said. “So it was finished from the head down.”

A family legacy

“My brother Jim built another statue after Paul he named Charlie the dragon,” Deana said. “That dragon sits in his front yard and talks and moves and blows smoke.

“All of my brothers took after my dad. He taught them how to build and sculpt. He taught us girls, too. I've helped do repairs on the statue ever since I was old enough. It's something dad passed down to all of us. It was a wonderful gift. Bruce and his son Adam run the Krotzer Construction business.”

Deana said Dean also did one special project at Northland Lodge near Walker in the 1980s, building Paul Bunyan’s Guest House out of concrete.

“It looks like a giant tree stump with an ax leaning against it,” she said. “The inside was decorated with everything Paul Bunyan. A giant chandelier lantern, a dresser with Paul's buttons. We also built all of the furniture.”

Deana said there are still a lot of Krotzer family members around Akeley. “It's a big big family with around 30 grandkids in the area,” she said.

Event schedule

The 75th annual Paul Bunyan Days celebration kicks off at 4:30 p.m. Friday with a fish fry at Paul’s Patio and music by the Pels. There will be a Kiddie parade at 6:30 p.m. music by Nate’s Fish from 7 to 10 p.m. and a youth dance from 8 to 11 p.m.

Saturday's events include Audrey’s Purple Plaid run to raise money to help area residents fighting cancer at 9 a.m., a treasure hunt at 10:30 a.m., a kids fishing contest at 2:30 p.m. and musical performances from 3 p.m. until midnight.

Sunday there will be a worship service at 10 a.m. at Paul’s Patio, a grand parade at 1 p.m. and an ice cream and pie social afterwards.

A full schedule of events is included in the Enterprise newspaper and on the Akeley Paul Bunyan Days Facebook page.

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Tournaments announced for GigaZone Gaming Championship, TechXpo

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 15:15:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Paul Bunyan Communications has announced Rocket League and other tournaments at the 2024 GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo set for Saturday, April 20, at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

The event will feature a special guest, Pixar Visual Effects Supervisor Danielle Feinberg, along with free gaming on various console and arcade games, numerous tournaments with over $5,000 in cash prizes, a cosplay contest, door prizes and more.

This year’s main stage tournament will feature Rocket League on the esports stadium-style stage in the GigaZone Championship Arena, Paul Bunyan Communications announced in a release.

The Rocket League tournament will be a 3-person team competition with a 32-team maximum.

"The past few years Rocket League has been a staple of eSports gaming and we’re excited to see it hit the main stage this year," Paul Bunyan Communications Chief Technical Officer Leo Anderson said in the release. "The close calls and crazy goals make it a great game to watch for fans and the uninitiated alike, and it’s a game that our community has always wanted to see get its chance in the spotlight."

In addition to the main stage, there will be tournaments for Fortnite, Madden NFL 24, Overwatch 2, Valorant, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and junior tournaments for those 13 and younger of Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Retro Arcade and Racing Sim will also be available for anyone to jump in and play, the release said.

New this year, all those who want to enter a tournament will need to create a GigaZone Gaming Player Profile prior to registration at the event. This will expedite the onsite registration process to allow the tournaments to start earlier. This can be done online at gigazonegaming.com.

Registration for all tournaments will start at 10 a.m. on April 20 at the Sanford Center and go until full.

"This year...we’ll be hosting a player registry online which players can visit to create their Gigazone Gaming Player Profile," Paul Bunyan Communications Data Representative Josh Almendinger said in the release. "This can be set up well ahead of time so that when folks show up the registration process will be as simple as heading to the game you want to compete in and tapping your name to check in."

"Last year was a big first for us in taking over the entire Sanford Center as well as joining the TechXpo to our gaming tournaments," Almendinger said.

This Paul Bunyan Communications event includes the talents of many local partners including NLFX, Accidentally Cool Games, Northern Amusement, the Sanford Center, as well as support from several regional and national partners, the release said.

For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship, visit gigazonegaming.com.

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Pixar's Danielle Feinberg to speak at Paul Bunyan Communications' TechXpo event

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 13:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Danielle Feinberg, Visual Effects Supervisor for Pixar Animation Studios, will be the guest at Paul Bunyan Communications' GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo, set for April 20 at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

Feinberg began her career at Pixar Animation Studios in 1997. Since then, she has worked on 14 of Pixar’s feature films, including A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and the Academy Award-winning Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. She was also the director of photography-lighting for the Academy Award- winning features WALL•E, Brave and Coco.

Feinberg recently completed her work as the visual effects supervisor on Turning Red, released on March 11, 2022. She was the first woman in 20 years to hold this role at Pixar. With her combination of strong visual and technical skills, Feinberg was uniquely positioned to join this film that had goals of finding a new style of its own, a release said.

"We are so excited to have Danielle as our special guest this year! Not only is she heavily involved with cutting-edge technology at Pixar, but she is a champion for women in STEM," Paul Bunyan Communications CEO and General Manager Gary Johnson said in the release. "She will inspire our guests by sharing her journey into the world of technology."

Feinberg champions women in STEM by participating in science and math mentoring programs for young women and continuing to tell her story. Her TED Talk, "The magic ingredient that brings Pixar movies to life," was named one of the top TED Talks of 2016.

As a special guest at the TechXpo, Feinberg will speak at 2 p.m. on the main stage. A Q&A session will follow. She will also be a judge for the Greater Bemidji Northstar Pitch Competition and may visit with local STEM students on Friday, April 19, if her schedule allows.

The GigaZone TechXpo exposes a growing regional audience to technology innovation and help them turn their technical skills and enthusiasm into successful careers in northern Minnesota, the release said. Start-ups and companies creatively leveraging technology can demonstrate their innovation to a large group of tech-savvy potential employees.

Educators and educational institutions can also promote the technology training programs they have to offer.

To apply, visit gigazonetechxpo.com. The deadline to apply is March 1. There is no cost to be an exhibitor but space is limited, and the exhibit must display their innovative use of technology.

The event showcases Paul Bunyan Communications’ IT and web development team, which custom-built and integrated much of the online technology being used, and leverages the speed of the GigaZone, one of the largest rural all-fiber optic gigabit networks in the country, the release said. The entire gaming event is run off a single residential GigaZone Internet connection.

For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship, visit gigazonegaming.com.

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Exhibitor applications now open for April 20 TechXpo event

Pioneer Staff Report — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 16:06:23 GMT

BEMIDJI — Exhibitor applications are now open for Paul Bunyan Communications' seventh annual GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo, set for April 20 at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

The GigaZone TechXpo exposes a growing regional audience to technology innovation and help them turn their technical skills and enthusiasm into successful careers in northern Minnesota, a release said. Start-ups and companies creatively leveraging technology can demonstrate their innovation to a large group of tech-savvy potential employees.

Educators and educational institutions can also promote the technology training programs they have to offer.

To apply, visit gigazonetechxpo.com. The deadline to apply is March 1. There is no cost to be an exhibitor but space is limited, and the exhibit must display their innovative use of technology.

“We were thrilled to have over 35 exhibitors from area businesses and schools who took the leap of faith that this would be a worthwhile event to be a part of and we hope to have even more this year," Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO and General Manager, said in the release.

For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship, visit gigazonegaming.com.

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Exhibitor applications open Jan. 3 for Paul Bunyan Communications' TechXpo

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 17:06:17 GMT

BEMIDJI — Exhibitor applications will open on Wednesday, Jan. 3 for Paul Bunyan Communications' seventh annual GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo, set for April 20 at the Sanford Center in Bemidji.

The event will feature free gaming on various console and arcade games, numerous tournaments, door prizes and more. There is no cost to enter the tournaments or for any of the gaming. Tournament details will be posted on the GigaZone Gaming Discord, Twitch channel, and Facebook page as well as gigazonegaming.com.

The event showcases Paul Bunyan Communications’ IT and web development team, which custom-built and integrated much of the online technology being used, and leverages the speed of the GigaZone, one of the largest rural all-fiber optic gigabit networks in the country, a release said. The entire gaming event is run off a single residential GigaZone Internet connection.

"Last year was our biggest event yet as we took over the entire Sanford Center for the first time and added the TechXpo," said Paul Bunyan Communications CEO and General Manager Gary Johnson in the release. "We were honored to have Steve Wozniak as our special guest and had over 35 exhibitors from area businesses and schools who demonstrated their use of technology to thousands of potential students, customers and employees."

The TechXpo will expose a growing regional audience to technology innovation and help them realize their potential to leverage their technical skills and enthusiasm into successful careers in northern Minnesota. Start-ups and companies creatively leveraging technology will be able to demonstrate their use of technology to a large group of tech-savvy potential employees.

Educators and educational institutions can have their tech-oriented students show off projects and promote the technology training programs they have to offer. There is no cost to be an exhibitor but space is limited, and the exhibit must display their innovative use of technology.

Exhibitor applications open on Jan. 3. To apply, visit gigazonetechxpo.com. The application deadline is March 1.

"There is no other gaming event like it anywhere that I’ve seen, and the TechXpo was a great addition," Brian Bissonette, Paul Bunyan Communications marketing supervisor, said in the release. "I don’t think people realize just how innovative our schools and businesses are and how they implement the latest technology into their operations or education curriculum. The TechXpo is a showcase for that in a personal, interactive and exciting way."

For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship, visit gigazonegaming.com.

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Bemidji's Brian Miller performs Irish-influenced music of lumberjacks

Shannon Geisen — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 12:35:00 GMT

When the Irish moved to Minnesota, they brought their music.

Brian Miller, a 1998 Bemidji High �� graduate, recently shared his fascination with the history and songs of northern Minnesota with the Headwaters Center for Lifelong Learning.

“I’m an archivist and librarian as well as a musician,” he told those in the audience on Tuesday, Oct. 17.

Miller has spent the past 15 years doggedly tracking down lyrics and melodies from the area's logging era.

As it turns out, the roots of folk singing in Minnesota have a strong connection to Ireland.

“Everything I do has an Irish flavor. That’s the music that I fell in love with, strangely, when I was growing up in Bemidji — traditional Irish music,” Miller said.

And this story begins in Akeley.

Akeley singer in the archives

During the 1800s — before the emergence of iTunes or Spotify — people carried about 150 to 200 songs in their head, Miller explained.

In the 1920s, “Adventure” was a popular magazine. Typically, it printed syndicated Jack London stories about the Yukon Gold Rush “or how to wrestle a crocodile, if you had to,” Miller said of the 25-cent publication.

That’s where he discovered a column, entitled “Old Songs That Men Have Sung,” in the very back pages of an October 1922 issue.

“One of the avid readers was a man named Reuben Waitstell Phillips who lived in Chamberlain, here in Hubbard County. It’s a bit of a ghost town on Highway 64 now,” Miller said, but Phillips is buried in White Oak Cemetery, along with his brother Seymour and son Israel.

“All three were singers, and Reuben sent in a handwritten manuscript of all the songs he knew to the editor of ‘Adventure’ magazine,” Miller said.

They were printed over the course of several months.

Miller sang one of them during his presentation, called “Lovel.” It’s based on a song originating in the 1650s about Patrick Flemming, a Robin Hood-like persona in Ireland. Over the centuries, the song evolved, using different names.

There were no musical notes with these lyrics, “but I’m a very tenacious researcher,” Miller said. He eventually located a collection of wax cylinder recordings of Phillips and other Minnesotan singers. Recorded by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1924, they are stored in an archive of American folk music at the Library of Congress.

Miller got a grant to have the 45 songs digitized. He listened to the scratchy recordings “probably “200 times.”

“That’s how I know how this song goes, but it wasn’t that easy to hear,” he said, adding they were often sung without instrumental accompaniment, so he made up the chords. “It was a really fun process. I find it really gratifying to try to bring the whole thing to life.”

Songs in the shanty

Akeley’s Red River Lumber Company was in its heyday during Phillips’ time.

Miller shared a logging camp tune, “What a Time on the Way,” that was sung by Israel Phillips.

Lumberjacks entertained themselves by singing in the winter evenings, sitting on a “deacon seat” inside the shanty.

“And there was a lot of atmosphere, with guys that took a bath once a month and ate mostly beans,” Miller said.

While interning at the Minnesota Historical Society, he came across Napoleon Nadeau’s photo collection.

Nadeau worked for the forest service, Miller said, and took a few photos of this area. He scoured through Nadeau’s photos, finding some taken in Hubbard County’s logging camps.

“You get a feel for how young a lot of the loggers were,” he added.

‘Lovely Minnesoty’

A shared culture was created by the railroad, logging and canal-digging industries across the Great Lakes, Miller said.

The jobs were seasonal and physically demanding. And dangerous.

“They were jobs done by immigrants,” he continued. “The Irish were the first big, noticeable wave of European immigrants of the 1800s.”

With bouzouki in hand, Miller sang “Lovely Minnesoty.” It was printed in the “Journal of Minnesota History” around the 1930s or 1940s. The tune was collected in the Minnesota River valley, where there were a lot of Irish communities.

John Ireland, the first Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Paul, “was trying to make Minnesota as Catholic as possible,” Miller said. “He was bringing people from the west coast of Ireland and plopping them on the prairie, which didn’t always work well. Whoever made this song up had a healthy sense of Minnesotan sarcasm about the weather and living here.”

The lyrics claim it never snows, fish jump into your boat and forests yield 30-point bucks, here “in the lovely Minnesoty, the lily of the west.”

A bouzouki is a traditional Greek instrument that would normally have a round back but was adopted by the Irish and altered.

“It’s a hybrid between a bouzouki and a guitar,” Miller explained.

The songbird of lumberjacks

Hank Underwood (1864-1937) traveled around Minnesota, wooing crowds with his baritone voice. He’s remembered in historian J. C. Ryan’s book “Early Loggers in Minnesota.”

Ryan writes, “He was very popular in the Bemidji and Deer River areas. … He went from camp to camp singing for the jacks in order to keep their morale up and sang everything from popular to classical songs.”

Miller added, “In his later years, he used to work at Itasca Park, in the 1930s when it was just getting started.”

He has yet to find a photo of Underwood, though.

Underwood’s songs were preserved thanks to Franz Rickaby, a Harvard graduate and an English professor at the University of North Dakota. Rickaby transcribed the lyrics.

Underwood hung out at his brother’s hotel in Kelliher, the Solway Hotel. He also sang in downtown Bemidji outside of the Kelliher Hotel.

Miller said, “In one of the Vandersluis books, they say crowds used to gather to hear him sing and the cops would have to come and break them up.”

Known as “the songbird of lumberjacks,” Miller said people clustered next to Underwood at church because “he had a voice that could quiet the angels.”

Underwood may have had a brief show business career, although the truth is “kinda hazy.” It’s said he performed with Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels and Fanny Davenport, Miller said.

His last appearance was at the 1937 unveiling of Bemidji's Paul Bunyan statue. He died a week later.

Miller sang “Banks of the River Plain,” a song that Underwood would know.

Miller teaches at the Center of Irish Music in St. Paul. Read his Northwoods Songs Blog at www.evergreentrad.com.

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Front Row Seat: Paul Bunyan problematic, new kids' book shows

Jay Gabler — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 12:00:00 GMT

DULUTH — Like a lot of Minnesota kids, I grew up with books about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. The books told incredible stories of the man who could fell an entire tree with one swing of his ax, and about his bovine companion, whose footprints became the state's 10,000 lakes.

"Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend" tells the story behind those stories of the legendary logger — and it's not pretty.

After a lumber company marketer invents a host of tall tales about Bunyan, a railroad porter chides the slimy ad man, saying his invention is "a fine way to put a shine on what happened to the landscape around here."

"Now the land is bare, and Native people have been forced away from their ancestral homes," adds another passenger, "and logging here in the Great Lakes is DEAD for lack of trees."

The new book was written and illustrated by South Carolina cartoonist Noah Van Sciver, with contributions from others including St. Paul artist Marlena Myles. According to the publisher, it's appropriate for children ages 7 and up. Earlier this month, Van Sciver and Myles joined a video call to talk about their work on the project.

"This cartoon character, this mascot, has a negative impact on Native people that actually has affected our real lives and communities," said Myles, who is Spirit Lake Dakota/Mohegan/Muscogee.

"It's very small, but it packs a big punch," said Van Sciver about the book. "It definitely changes the way you see things."

The character Paul Bunyan emerged from oral history, as dramatized in the book. The story is set in 1914 Minnesota, where a train experiences a delay and stops in the woods. The passengers disembark and fill the time trading tales about the likes of "Big Joe" Mufferaw and a super-strong Finn named Otto Walta. Finally, the lumberman weighs in with the incredible story of "the greatest lumberjack of them all."

The true story behind the book's simplified account is that the Red River Lumber Co. popularized the character of Paul Bunyan with a series of pamphlets in the 1910s and 1920s. The company needed a public relations boost for a new California mill, which some consumers doubted would match the quality of the company's previous Minnesota product.

The character gained national fame, but had a special resonance in Minnesota's northwoods. While Paul and Babe were initially embraced as symbols of the industry that had provided decades of employment for local loggers, the mythical giants came to be regarded as emblems of the state generally.

"When people are being lazy and creating a mural of Minnesota, you'll see Paul Bunyan somewhere on it, but you won't see a single Native person," said Myles. "He represents the destruction of the land and the disconnection of people from nature."

"It's pretty frightening to see what actually happened," said Van Sciver. "How much of this country was clear-cut, how much of it was destroyed."

"If someone said, 'Let's clear-cut the forest' now, people would go freaking insane," said Myles. "Back then, that's what they did."

Not only did logging transform the traditional homeland of Native people who were displaced by European settlers, Myles writes in the book, the invention of characters like Paul Bunyan obscured Indigenous stories about wood spirits that live in harmony with the very trees the giant lumberjack was laboring to fell.

"It's a little bit sad," said Myles, who describes those spirits in a section of the book featuring her art, including a Dakota map of southeastern Minnesota. Even the real-life lumberjacks, the book suggests, were ultimately working to fill the pockets of corporate executives who picked up and headed west as soon as our region's forests had been cleared away.

It's an "outdated way of thinking," Myles continued, "that you need to be so proud of working for a company. Using these mascots makes these people feel like they're part of something bigger, when really they're being used just like the land."

Northern Minnesota communities haven't celebrated Paul Bunyan as extensively as have cities like Bemidji — whose Paul and Babe statues, dating to 1937, were "the first permanent landscape feature of the folk giants," according to John Patrick Harty's 2007 study of the characters' local history. In part, that's because the discovery of iron ore caused mining to displace logging as the Northland's signature extractive industry.

Still, Bunyan made his impact on northern Minnesota as well. The St. Louis County Historical Society's J.C. Ryan Forest History Room, in Duluth's Depot, invites visitors to "follow the fascinating trail of Minnesota's forest history" and valorizes the lumberjack as "an American folk hero — a product of the logging world — created in the great white pine forests of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota."

The room includes a display on how real-life lumberjacks spent their evenings, swapping "swamp sagas of Paul Bunyan, the agropelter, Jesus Billy, Battle Axe Anton, Drop Cake Morley and countless other real and surreal forest figures." What the room does not include is any conspicuous mention of the Indigenous people displaced by the loggers.

While Paul Bunyan is the most famous example, there are other corporate mascots that don't seem as cute when you contemplate what they represent. The Pillsbury Dough Boy and the Jolly Green Giant, for example, both stump for giants of industrial food production. It was only a few years ago that Land O'Lakes removed the "butter maiden" from its packaging.

"It's this Indian maid just happily serving you," said Myles, "after you took all her land and killed all her people."

Lee Francis IV (Pueblo of Laguna) contributed an introduction to "Paul Bunyan," which also features a postscript by Deondre Smiles, a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. The book's authors know the Paul Bunyan imagery pervasive across North America's woodlands isn't going away any time soon, but they'd like to see it understood in its proper perspective.

"We don't pretend that American legends and icons don't exist," said Van Sciver. "We continue telling the stories, but we make sure that future generations have context about what this actually was, in a way that other generations didn't."

"Minnesota really has to look at the imagery it produces," said Myles. "You can keep Paul Bunyan around as a history lesson, but we need to promote the diverse voices of Minnesota."

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