Bay City Folklore in Library's Children's Literature Research Collection
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Paul Bunyan book with original poems, Bay City folklore, photos and artwork is in second printing (paperback, 1999).
The book that documents Bay City's connection with the Paul Bunyan legend is now part of the nation's largest collection of materials on the legendary logger.
The local book, "Paul Bunyan: How A Terrible Timber Feller Became A Legend," (Historical Press, Bay City, MI, 1999, $15) has been accepted by the Paul Bunyan Collection of the Children's Literature Research Collections at the Elmer L. Andersen Library of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Some of the research on the origin of the Paul Bunyan legend was done by the author at the Andersen Library in Minneapolis in the early 1990s.
It is the author's contention that much of the legend was based on Fabian "Joe" Fournier, whose exploits were notorious in Bay City in the 1865-75 period.
A chapter on Fournier from the Bay City book is reprinted in a three page section of a middle school text, "Literature and the Language Arts," published by EMC Paradigm, a noted academic publishing firm in Minneapolis, and distributed nationwide. The section also features a description of Paul Bunyan by Carl Sandburg, Pulitizer prize winning biographer and poet.
The Minnesota library's special Bunyan collection was established in the late 1990s with the gift of an extensive group of books, pamphlets, photographs and other materials by the late Professor W.W. Charters of Ohio State University, an author of Bunyan tales himself.
The Bay City book is a 192 page volume containing a review of the history of the development of the Paul Bunyan folklore. The book includes the first drawing of the folklore figure by cartoon artist W. B. Laughead for the Red River Lumber Company of Minneapolis. The Laughead collection oforiginal art that captivated the country and brought fame to the folklore figure is also in the Paul Bunyan Collection in the children's literature research section of the Andersen library.
Fournier was murdered Nov. 6, 1875 on the Water Street ferryboat dock, allegedly by one Adolphus "Blinky" Robertson, a Saginaw stone mason. Death was caused by a massive blow from a ship carpenter's mallet as the lumberjack strode down the gangplank after a riotous excursion on the Steamer Daniel Ball.
Next year will mark the 130th anniversary of the murder, which drew extensive news coverage in Saginaw and other lumbering centers. Subsequent news about the trial of Robertson, and Fournier's exploits in the woods and as a brawler, attracted several authors of books. The most noted author of Bunyan tales was James Stevens, a Seattle lumberjack, who came to Bay City and stayed for 10 months in 1930 to do research for his 1932 book "The Saginaw Paul Bunyan," considered the definitive work onthe legends.
Later writers who came to Bay City and treated the subject included Stewart Holbrook, whose "Holy Old Mackinaw" was a runaway best-seller featuring many apochryphal tales gleaned from local residents.
For more information please see www.paulbunyanbook.com or contact Historical Press, 4659 Dale Court, Bay City, MI 48706, phone 989-686-5544.###
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