June 28th celebrates National Paul Bunyan Day!Marlo Anderson mentioned the commercial use of Paul Bunyan. That plays a bigger part in Paul Bunyan: The Man, The Myth, The Debate | Mossback's Northwest from Cascade PBS.
The giant logger supposedly dug Puget Sound and built Mount Rainier with the dirt.It doesn't matter to me whether Paul Bunyan began as folklore or "fakelore." The United States is a relatively young country with a strong commercial culture, so our mass culture has been shaped by commerce, including publishing, advertising, and public relations. This includes our folk heroes, like Paul Bunyan, John Henry (shown in the video as a fellow labor hero), and Pecos Bill (not mentioned).
Speaking of not being mentioned, neither of the above videos includes Michigan's role in the Paul Bunyan story, although the National Day Calendar website does.
First appearing in print in 1906, in a story published by Northern Michigan journalist James MacGillivray, Bunyan’s character originated in folktales circulated among lumberjacks in the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada.The only thing missing is the Paul Bunyan trophy for the winner of the Michigan-MSU football game to make the record complete.
Stay tuned for another post I can share in July tomorrow followed by International Asteroid Day, the younger but paradoxically more established version of Apophis Day, to close June, and Canada Day to begin July.
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