GOOD TIMES IN WATER WONDERLAND

Me, L, Katja, and A at Farm

Dear George, 

Katja and I are just back from our weeklong trip to the U.P. and Northern Michigan. Our son J persuaded us to come up to our family farm in Menominee. He and his family were there, along with our nephew Jacob, his wife Kazandra, and their kids August and Delphine, all of whom had come from Brooklyn. We had a great time. It was a treat to see our grandkids, and we hadn’t seen Jacob and Kazandra’s family in over a decade. Their twelve-year-old daughter Delphine overheard me saying that my sister Vicki and I rarely talk on the telephone, so she called Vicki and said I was on the line, then told me that Vicki was on the line for me. Vicki and I had a nice talk, and it wasn’t till later that I learned that Delphine had arranged the whole thing to repair our fragile brother-sister connection. 

I’d had my 85th birthday just two weeks before, and J arranged for a family birthday celebration at Berg’s Landing, our favorite Menominee restaurant. My grandkids, A and L, gave me thoughtful and fun presents that they’d bought in New York City, and my grand-niece Delphine gave me an artistic birthday card that she’d drawn. I don’t think I’ve had a birthday party with a family group since high school, so it was a memorable occasion. 

As always, we had a good time in Menominee. This included visits to Henes Park, the marina and historic district, the House of Yesteryear and Main Street antique malls, the Rusty Wolfe art gallery, the Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul stores, the Menominee County Museum, the Stephenson Library (with its bargain book sale), and meals out at the Watermark, Culvers, and Mickey-Lu Bar-B-Q. I found being at Farm very peaceful. I think it’s because I associate it so strongly with our parents and with wonderful family get-togethers over the years. Everybody was happy to be there.  My cousins Ann and John Buscher came to Farm for lunch, and Ann brought along her amazing family genealogy book.  Then Jacob interviewed me about our family history, an interesting and fun conversation. 

After four days in Menominee, we drove up to St. Ignace where we had whitefish at the Village Inn and stayed overnight at the Budget Host. Katja bought her supply of Murdick’s Fudge for friends, and then we crossed the Mackinac Bridge, driving down the Lake Michigan coast through Petoskey, Charlevoix, Traverse City, Manistee, Pentwater, Ludington, Grand Haven, and South Haven. These are such pristine towns, filled with boutiques and restaurants, and offering magnificent views of Lake Michigan. We stayed overnight in Ludington, did an eight-hour drive back to Cincinnati, and picked up our little dog Iko the following evening.  Now we're resting up and enjoying happy memories.  

Love, Dave 

On the Road Again

DEAR GEORGE, Recently long-time friends, Lois and Bob A, invited us to come up to visit them in Menominee, my Upper Peninsula home town. It was our first trip in 18 months. We drove up from Cincinnati via Chicago and Milwaukee in two days, arriving in Menominee in the late afternoon on Sunday. Menominee (pop. 8,150) is located on Green Bay at the southern tip of the U.P., about 55 miles north of the city of Green Bay. It’s right across the Menominee River from Marinette, Wisconsin (pop. 10,608), our twin sister city and the site of my father’s family home. Returning to Menominee and Marinette is always an emotional experience for me. I left for college in 1955, yet much of the town remains the same some 66 years later: the layout of the streets, most of the houses and buildings, the churches, the city parks, the courthouse, the library, the marina, the cemetery, the airport. On the other hand, many of the important places of my youth have either disappeared or been relocated: my grade school and high school, my father’s law office, my uncle’s Rexall drugstore, the DAR Boys Club, the Lloyd and Menominee Theaters, the Five and Dime, the GI Surplus Store, Harry Cooney’s gas station, Garbell’s soda shop, Sonny’s grocery, Trautners, the Gateway Cafe, the hospital, Herb Beyersdorf’s garage, the Ideal Dairy. While I was clearly home again, a big chunk of “home” now exists only in my mind.

Our friends live in a magnificent home that they built by hand themselves on the shore of Green Bay. Because we are so landlocked in southwest Ohio, it’s easy to forget how wonderful it is to live on the water. Menominee is spread out for three miles along the shoreline of Green Bay, Lake Michigan’s largest inlet, and the town’s southern boundary is along the Menominee River (the border between the U.P. and Wisconsin). Menominee’s main business district is situated on the bay, as are its five city parks. You never forget being on the water, the visual scenes are hypnotic, and the ready access to the bay and the river make the outdoors a central part of residents’ everyday lives: swimming, fishing, boating, water-skiing, kayaking and canoeing, skating, ice boating.

We have a regular routine as tourists when we visit Menominee and Marinette, and we did much of it this trip: driving around the loop, Henes Park (with a brand new pavilion bathhouse), the boutiques in the historic downtown district, the marina, the magnificent Spies Public Library, art galleries (including Marinette’s Rusty Wolfe Gallery which could just as well be on Madison Avenue in NYC), “Simply Charming”, Pine Tree Mall, antique malls, thrift shops, the Riverside Cemetery, Riverside Drive in Marinette, Sequins, Joe’s Cheese Shop, and a trip on River Road to the location of our old family home. We were saddened by the loss of Weathervane Antiques and Younkers department store, but pleased with the new Menekaunee Harbor Park and boat launch with its attractive regional sculptures and with the new House of Yesteryear antique store in downtown Menominee. I bought a Menominee Maroons T-Shirt for $12.95 at the drugstore, and Katja got us two U.P. hoodies and some $75-a-pound cheese at Joe’s. Katja and I had a date night at Berg’s Landing, Menominee’s finest restaurant, and enjoyed a lot of other local eateries as well: The Watermark [successor to Schloegel’s], Applejacks, The Brothers Three, the Serving Spoon, and Culvers where we had our traditional lunch with my cousins Ann and John B.

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s my parents purchased and renovated an 1880’s farm near Birch Creek, five miles north of town, and my Seattle niece and nephew, Jennifer and Greg, currently operate the family property as a successful Airbnb. Katja and I went out to Farm on a day between rentals and Jim and Sharon K gave us a tour. My parents, Vic and Doris, would have been thrilled. There were new roofs on four of the buildings, the Barn’s sagging foundation had been shorn up, the guest house had been renovated, the bridge over Birch Creek repaired. All in all, the property was more inviting than it’s ever been, and it’s no wonder that nearly all of the Guest Book comments refer to it as “magical” or “mystical”. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, though it was bittersweet. We’ve had so many happy family reunions over the years with lots of joking and laughter, but now, with the loss of parents and siblings, it’s more of a place for quiet reminiscing and nostalgia.

We decided to return to Cincinnati by way of the Upper Peninsula and the Mackinac Bridge. The 195-mile trip from Menominee to St. Ignace and the bridge reminded me of how remarkable the U.P. is. We passed through about a dozen villages and small towns, but only one had a population of 10,000 or more (Escanaba) and most had 200 people or less. The U.P. is largely a wilderness area, and we spent the vast majority of time driving through evergreen forests along the Lake Michigan shoreline — a wild and beautiful country. The Upper Peninsula is about the size of Denmark, but contains only 3% of Michigan’s population. Population density is 19 people per square mile (compared to 94 people per square mile for the U.S. as a whole). Yoopers, as natives are colloquially called, enjoy an outdoor life — hunting, fishing, boating, camping, hiking. Our trip made me once again contemplate how much my personality and attitudes were shaped by growing up in the U.P. LOVE, DAVE

How Do We Really Know If We're Yoopers?

Dear George,

When I was growing up in Menominee, we were keenly aware of living in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.   Detroit seemed a million miles away, and we actually identified more strongly with Wisconsin than with the Lower Peninsula.  The Green Bay Packers — not the Detroit Lions — were our favorite sports team, and Milwaukee was our top big city destination.   In fact, many residents, including some of my own family members, wanted the U.P. to secede from Michigan and form their own state called “Superior”.  

The term “Yooper”, on the other hand, didn’t even exist during my childhood years.  According to Merriam-Webster, its first recorded usage was in 1977.  “Yooper”, of course, refers to a native or resident of the U.P.  So everybody who lives there or grew up there is, by definition, a Yooper.  However, it also makes sense to think of degrees of “Yooperness”, having to do with lifestyle, attitudes, interests, and activities.  Some people, one might argue, are more authentic Yoopers than others.  Here is a quiz, drawn from the various websites listed at the end, designed to assess how much one’s life history corresponds to a conventional Yooper profile.  Answer “Yes” or “No” to each question, and give yourself one point for each “Yes”.  With a total of 35 items, I would say that a score of 20 or more qualifies one as a Yooper through and through, and 28 makes you eligible for the Yooper Hall of Fame.  

Love,

Dave    

Have you ever:

Eaten a pasty

Been to Ahmeek

Gone ice fishing

Driven for 30 minutes through the forest without seeing a building

Played cribbage

Ridden in a snowmobile

Played ice hockey with your friends 

Walked on snowshoes

Caught a muskellunge or a northern pike 

Owned a Packer Cheese Head 

Had six-foot snow drifts on your street 

Owned a T-shirt or a baseball cap with the area code 906 on it 

Ridden in an ice boat 

Cut down your own Xmas tree from the woods 

Owned two or more guns in your household

Considered Green Bay to be the “Big City” for shopping 

Had friends who own a “camp”, not a “cottage” 

Referred to soda drinks as “pop” 

Known who Heikki Lunta is 

Known people who have hit a deer with their car more than once

Worn snow pants on Halloween or Easter 

Skipped work or school on the first day of hunting season

Used the trunk of your car as a freezer 

Told ghost stories at a campfire

Been able to correctly pronounce Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac, and Menominee

Had more venison than beef in your freezer

Carried snow chains in your trunk 

Carried a backpack weighing 20 pounds or more 

Had icicles that stretched from the roof to the ground 

Driven your car on the bay ice 

Worn flannel underwear. 

Jumped into the water with the temperature under 40 degrees. 

Had a butter burger for lunch

Had friends who swear they have seen Bigfoot

SOURCES: 

www.dayoopers.com, “What da heck is a Yooper?”; 

www.freep.com, “What’s a Yooper?” 

www.huffingtonpost.com, “You’ve probably never heard of a Yooper, but here’s why you’ll wish you were one”; 

www.matadornetwork.com, “13 things people from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula always have to explain to out-of-towners”; 

www.movoto.com, “10 Yooper stereotypes that are completely accurate”; 

www.theinquisitivevintner.wordpress.com, “What is a Yooper?”; 

www.theodysseyonline.com, 15 signs you’re a Yooper”; 

www.thepeninsulas.weebly.com, “Yoopers and trolls”; 

www.wikipedia.org, “Yooper” 

U.P. Cryptids: Stranger Than Fiction

Dear George,

One benefit of growing older is that one becomes more attuned to strange, inexplicable happenings in the world.  I think this is especially true for people who have grown up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  The U.P., of course, is a vast wilderness and hence a place of great mystery.  About 80 percent of the land is uninhabited forest, home to many remarkable animals: bear, wolves, moose, cougars, beavers, weasels, and a variety of other creatures.  Less well-known is that the deep interior of the U.P. is believed to be home to strange beings that most people have never seen.  These are termed “cryptids”, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “an animal whose existence or survival to the present day is disputed or unsubstantiated.”  The Loch Ness Monster is the best-known example of a cryptid.  Despite numerous eyewitness accounts, photographs, videos, and sonar readings, the existence of the Loch Ness monster remains disputed by most scientists.  In similar fashion, the wilds of the U.P. are home to a number of cryptids.  While I’ve never seen any of them personally, many Yoopers and visitors have confirmed their existence.  Here are some of the Upper Peninsula cryptids that we should watch for in our travels.     

Bigfoot

The most famous cryptid found in the U.P. is Bigfoot.  Bigfoot (or Sasquatch) sightings have been reported throughout much of North America, especially in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast as well as the Great Lakes region.  Bigfoot is typically described as a tall (7 to 9 foot), hairy, muscular, ape-like creature that walks on two legs.  Suspected Bigfoot footprints have been as large as 24 inches long and 8 inches wide. 

Over the years there have been many hundreds of Bigfoot sighting and thousands of tracks.  Bigfoot encounters have been reported in every county in Michigan.  In one well-publicized incident a mother and daughter were driving in a rural area of Monroe County when they saw a tall, hairy, man-like creature run in front of their car.  The creature punched the teenage girl and slammed the mother’s head into the dashboard, then ran off and disappeared in the woods.  There have been lots of sightings of an 8-foot tall hairy beast by hikers and hunters in the Huron National Forest near Oscoda.  On one occasion two hunters shot a deer, but Bigfoot got there first and hauled it away. 

A recent Bigfoot case occurred just two miles from my parents’ Birch Creek home outside of Menominee.  A local resident set up game cameras on his property and discovered  images of a tall, hairy creature in the forest — not a bear, not any known animal.  Animal Planet sent in a tema and did did a TV show on the Menominee Bigfoot.  Menominee County is home to the Upper Peninsula Bigfoot/Sasquatch Research Organization, located at Hermansville.  Researchers there have documented Bigfoot sightings near Escanaba, Gladstone, Rapid River, Gwinn, Iron Mountain, Germfask, and other U.P. sites.  While skeptics remain wary of the existence of Bigfoot, primatologist Jane Goodall said in a 2002 NPR interview, “I’m sure they exist.”  (3, 4, 8). 

The Michigan Dogman 

The U.P. has also been home to many sightings of another prominent cryptid, the Michigan Dogman.  The Dogman was first seen in Wexford County in 1887 by two lumberjacks.  They described it as seven feet tall with a man’s torso and the head of a dog.  The Dogman is known for his frightening howl that sounds like a human scream.  It is believed to have been stalking the area around the Manistee River since the 1700s.   Sightings were reported in Allegan County in the 1950s and in Manistee and Cross Village in 1967.  In 1973 a man in Paris, Michigan, was attacked by five wild dogs, and he reported that one of them walked on two legs.   Horses in the Upper Peninsula are known to have died of fright, surrounded by dog tracks.  Evidence for the Dogman’s existence remained anecdotal until the discovery in 2004 of an 8mm. family film purchased at an estate sale which provides the only filmed image of the Dogman.  When a Traverse City D.J. broadcast a song about the Dogman, he received over one hundred reports confirming the creature’s existence.  (9) 

Waheela

The Waheela is a large, wolf-like creature that prefers cold, inhospitable environments and is believed to inhabit the U.P., Canada, and Alaska.  Larger and more heavily built than normal wolves, Waheela are solitary creatures who are rarely found in packs.  An American mechanic who witnessed a Waheela some years ago described it as looking like a wolf on steroids.  Centuries ago Native American legends referred to the Waheela as an evil spirt with supernatural powers that kills people and removes their heads.   Some speculate that modern Waheela are descendants of prehistoric bear-dogs.  (5) 

Hodag

While the Hodag is primarily associated with Wisconsin, it is also reported to inhabit the lumber woods of the Upper Peninsula.  The name “Hodag” is a combination of “horse” and “dog”.  The Hodag is seven feet long and resembles a bull-horned rhinoceros with a spiny back and horns growing from its forehead.  It has been described as “the fiercest, strangest, most frightening monster ever to set razor sharp claws on the earth.”  The Hodag was first discovered in 1893 by Eugene Shepherd, a Rhinelander lumberman who reportedly killed the beast with dynamite and exhibited it at the Oneida County Fair.  When accused of manufacturing a hoax, Shepherd explained that he had kept the real Hodag body hidden so that it wouldn’t be stolen.  Today the Hodag is the official mascot of Rhinelander High School.  (7)   

Pressie, the Lake Superior Serpent

The U.P.’s borders include shorelines of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and Lake Huron.  Each of these Great Lakes has been the reported home of astonishing water cryptids.  The most famous is Pressie, the Lake Superior Serpent.  Many credible witnesses have spotted Pressie over the years. She is named after the Presque Isle River where one of the best sightings occurred.  Observers have described a serpent-like creature up to 75 feet long, green and black in color, with a horse-like head on a longish neck and a whale-type tale.  In 1897 a Detroit man fell overboard from his yacht near Duluth and was attacked by a huge serpent which tried to strangle him like a boa constrictor.  His three shipmates saw the serpent as well.  On Memorial Day weekend in 1977 an Ironwood hiker named Randy Braun snapped a photo of what he believed to be a giant serpent swimming in the lake.  The photo suggest a serpent-like creature with a hornlike head on a long neck and an undefined tail.  In the mid-1990’s near Point Iroquois two fishermen watched in horror as a large aquatic animal pulled a wading buck deer under the water and left only it’s severed head.  No carcasses of the Lake Superior serpent have ever been found, and investigators have suggested that a gigantic sturgeon may account for at least some of the sightings.  (2) 

The Lake Michigan Monster

While sightings of huge water serpents have been most common in Lake Superior, Lake Michigan has had its own enormous prehistoric creatures.  Sightings along the Lake Michigan coast near Cross Village, Harbor Springs, and Northport date back as far as 1817 and describe a 60-foot serpent.  Local Native Americans referred to it as a “sea panther” because of its catlike head and lizard body.  Similar sightings have occurred in other northern lakes, including Lake Erie and Lake Champlain.  Some cryptozoologists speculate that the Great Lake serpents may be landlocked prehistoric plesiosaurs.  (6) 

Sea Monster of the Straits

Another account of the Great Lakes sea monsters was reported by the Grand Rapids Press on June 25, 1976.  The owner of a resort on the Lake Huron shorefront reported seeing two 45-foot sea creatures frolicking in the Mackinac Straits in front of his property.  The Cheboygan County Sheriff stopped by the next day and, much to his surprise, observed one of the creatures.  “I went down to the beach, and sure enough, I’m looking at something 20, maybe 30 feet long, swimming just below the surface.  I was amazed.  I didn’t know what it was, but it sure wasn’t a publicity stunt.”  The sheriff arranged for a couple of deputies to search the area in a canoe but they weren’t successful.  Experts theorized that it might have been a giant eel or carp, but no eels or carp have ever been known to approach that size.  (1) 

Three Centaurs in the Forest

It’s hard to say which of the various U.P. cryptids actually exist.  Some, of course, might be mythical or products of over-active imaginations.  I personally prefer to believe that there are many types of prehistoric creatures that have survived over the eons in the depths of the U.P. wilderness and remain hidden from civilization.  I do find that I’m much more alert to the possibility of cryptids.  Just last weekend I was hiking at Miami Whitewater Forest near Cincinnati with a friend when we saw what appeared to be three horseback riders passing by in the woods.  It was very strange.  Neither of us had ever seen a horse in Miami Whitewater Forest before, much less in the thickest part of the forest.   I went home, did some cryptozoological research, and suddenly realized that these had’t been riders on horseback at all.   Instead we had been fortunate enough to see a trio of centaurs — creatures with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse.  So amazing!  Now that I have definite proof that crypts exist, I’m eager to return to Menominee and conduct a search on our family property for signs of Bigfoot.  I’ll enlist Katja and our grandchildren to help me.  I’m certain that we’ll be successful.

Love,

Dave 

SOURCES: 

(1) www.absolutemichigan.com, “Weird Wednesday: Michigan Sea Monsters” 

(2) www.cryptomundo.com, “Pressie, the Lake Superior Monster” 

(3) www.ehextra.com, “Bigfoot sighting in area” 

(4) www.freep.com,  “The Dogman and other Michigan mysteries” 

(5) www.newanimal.org, “The Cryptid Zoo: Bear-dogs”

(6) www.travelandleisure.com, “America’s Most Mysterious Places” 

(7) www.web.archive.org, “In search of the Hodag” 

(8) www.wikipedia.org, “Bigfoot” 

(9) www.wikipedia.org, “Michigan Dogman” 

Being a Yooper

Dear George,

When I was a kid, the term “Yooper” hadn’t yet come into existence.  As far as I can tell, it entered mass circulation in the early 1970’s.  Once out there, however, it crystallized a lot of people’s life experiences, providing a shared identity based upon place.  Like being a Texan or a New Yorker or a Hoosier.  A narrow definition of “Yooper” simply means somebody who lives or grew up in and identifies with the U.P. (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula).  However, the meaning of the word is a lot broader, with associations to geography, climate, population, economy, rural/urban context, the natural environment, lifestyles, attitudes and values.  I tried to capture some of what “Yooper” means to me in the poem below.  Everybody’s associations to being a Yooper are to some degree unique, but this is my version.

Love,

Dave

Being a Yooper

Driving north on M-35

Green Bay is just to the right

Blue-green water glistening in the sun

Tipped by the whites of the waves

To the left, pine forests stretch for miles

A six-point buck pauses, darts across the road

Lunch stop at Paddy’s Bar, Cedar River

Butter burgers that melt in your mouth

Soon we’ll be in Escanaba

I grew up in the Upper Peninsula

The people there call themselves Yoopers

Yoopers are those who live in the U.P. 

While Downstaters are known as Trolls

Trolls, of course, are beings who live under the bridge

The Trolls, we believe, are envious of Yoopers

So we let them cross the bridge in the month of July

The U.P., in large part, is a wilderness

Its forests cover millions of acres

Pine and spruce, cedar, maple and oak

Here a pristine lake, there a waterfall

A Great Blue Heron skimming over the pond 

In hidden places a bear or a moose                 

My home town is named Menominee

“The Land of the Wild Rice Eaters”

Nine thousand, the U.P.’s fourth largest city

One stoplight, one high school, eight taverns

The Marina, Henes Park, the Interstate Bridge

It’s spread for three miles along the bay shore

People in Menominee are friendly and kind

They’re fanatic about the Green Bay Packers

Strong passion for boating and sailing

For hunting and fishing and camping

For Jim Beam whiskey, creamed herring, and pasties

Our family lived out in the country

In a house built of Norway pine

We spent summer days in the river

Splashing and swimming, diving off our raft

Searching for golden doubloons in the mud

Backstroking across the Pig Island

Our treehouse was in the great oaks

The willow was best for climbing

Steven and I had daily acorn fights

We raced barefoot on the gravel driveway

Searched for antlers in the woods

Shot at tin cans with the twenty-two

And played night basketball all winter long

Deer came to feed in our garden

There were porcupine nests in the maples

Huge pine snakes lived next to our chimney

The chipmunks stole seeds from the feeder

At dusk the snapping turtles swam by

U.P. winters were harsh

Sometimes zero, even ten below

Our cheeks got red, our noses burned

The snowdrifts reached three or four feet

My father towed our toboggan behind his car

Icicles stretched from the eaves to the ground

Snowbound, the county road would close, vacation time

At sixteen we went to hunting camp

Our dads played cards and drank Silver Cream beer

We rose at five to take our posts

Freezing, I sat motionless for hours

Waiting for a wayward deer

No luck

In high school we borrowed the family car

And cruised the Twin City loop

Drag-raced at the stoplight

Waited at the drawbridge

The girls walked in pairs along Ogden Ave.

Waiting for the boys to pick them up

Root beer at the A&W

Perhaps the 64 drive-in

Menominee was a blue collar town

Many grownups worked with their hands

College degrees were infrequent

And there wasn’t much gap between rich and poor

All of the teens went to Menominee High

Every one of us, I’d say, was a Yooper

I’m lucky I grew up in the U.P.

It’s a thoroughly remarkable place

Perhaps we were lacking in big city smarts

No ballet, museums, or opera

But people were warm and honest and caring

And as kids we were free and secure

Life was filled with high adventure

Who could ask for more than that?

Paul Bunyan, U.P. Lumberjack

Dear George,

Growing up on the Menominee River, we were well aware of the lore of the nineteenth century logging industry in our region.  The best-known legends, of course, were about Paul Bunyan who roamed Northern Michigan and Wisconsin.  Here are some of the Paul Bunyan tales, set to poetry.

Love,

Dave

The Ballad of Paul Bunyan

The most famous figure in my home town

Was Paul Bunyan, the North’s lumberjack

He dug the Menominee River

He could level ten pines with one whack

Paul Bunyan was born in Menominee County

He weighed over two hundred pounds 

It took eight storks to deliver him

Six wet-nurses made daily rounds

Each time baby Paul rolled over in his sleep

He would flatten an acre of trees

His parents built a raft in the midst of Green Bay

But Oconto would flood when he’d sneeze

As a child Paul Bunyan was not only strong

He was faster than a lightning arc

He could turn off his light and leap into bed

Before his room even got dark

Paul found a blue ox in a snowdrift

Took him home and young Babe grew so fast

A crow took an hour to fly twixt Babe’s horns

When he burped, buildings crumbled from the blast

Babe could pull anything Paul asked of him

For example, their crooked logging road

Babe pulled on that road till it straightened out

And that new road carried ten times the load

Babe was in need of a watering hole

Paul Bunyan dug a hole with his axe

Today it’s the Lake called Superior

Pictured Rocks were formed by Babe’s tracks

Paul and Babe took a hike through Minnesota

Their footprints in the earth were so big

Those depressions became the 10,000 lakes

And Babe drank them up in one swig

A log jam blocked the Menominee River

Paul poked Babe’s derriere with a spear

Babe swished his tail and broke up the jam 

And the river stayed clear for a year

The axe men in Paul’s camp were seven feet tall

And each had the same name of Sven

When Paul called out “Sven” the whole crew came running

Dragging sled-loads of logs from the glen

Sourdough Sam made pancakes at their camp 

His griddle covered thirteen full acres

Twenty-five men with bacon on their feet

Greased that griddle to help out the bakers

Paul Bunyan enjoyed a pipe after dinner

And he blew his smoke far away

It floated westward over the hills

Creating the smog in L.A.  

The winter of ’07 was so brutally cold

The axe men’s words froze in mid-air 

Those words remained frozen until the spring thaw

Then they heard melting chatter everywhere

No one is certain where Paul is today

Some think he is at the North Pole
They say he returns to the U.P. each May

Bringing Babe for a leisurely stroll