Paul Bunyan

Day 120: Some folk would tell you Paul Bunyan come from one o' them states what starts with M. Don't matter which one, 'cuz the truth of it is, he was borned right here in Washington. Now maybe he had a twin brother. I cain't say for sure about that angle, but Paul done let loose the first yell of his life in a cabin in the hills not far from mine. I ain't sayin' I was around when it happened, but the old-timers tell that when li'l Paul cut loose with that holler, it flattened all the trees on one hillside. That's how they knew the tyke was bound to be a lumberjack when he growed up.

Now Paul's daddy was a little bit of a thing. By the time he was seven, young Paul could pick him up in one hand. He'd set his pa on a tall stump and then go on about playin'. Paul was allus into mischief. Weren't a dang thing the old man could do to stop Paul when he dug a big hole in the back yard with his bare hands. When the hole was knee-deep to him, the lad toed in a trench to let the ocean flow through. Them science fellers would tell you somethin' else, but that's how the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound got made. Another time, he knocked the top off Mt. Rainier and filled it full of snow so's he could have somethin' cold for summer afternoons. But most times, he was a good boy and helped out at home. In fact, one day he cleared his pappy's field of all the rocks, stacked 'em up neat down the middle of the state. Nowadays they call the pile the Cascade Mountains.

Yep, Paul's our native son and we're right proud to own him. Lots o' little places show it too, like Morton. But only a few of us remember Paul himself, a man tall as the sky with a heart to match, but remember him we do, and no dang state with M in it's got more rights to his legacy than us'ns. Maybe he did have a twin brother. I ain't sayin' yea or nay, but Paul...Paul was a Washington boy.