Special Section: Paul Bunyan Days lives on,
Last time, it took a world war to stop Fort Bragg’s Paul Bunyan Days, in 1942 through 1945. In the 1960s, they could not raise enough money, so they canceled it for two years. But aside from those problems, Paul Bunyan Days has gone on each year since 1939 without a hitch. Until now.
The little bug that is invading people around the world has canceled our Labor Day celebrations for 2020, but you can bet Fort Bragg will have an over-thetop celebration next year.
The Paul Bunyan Committee, and almost 20 other organizations on the coast, have provided the citizens and tourists a weekend of fun for over 80 years. It all started because Fort Bragg wanted to get its name out there as a great place to visit.
So in 1939, a group put together an event called “The Return of Paul Bunyan.” Along with a parade, logging show, dressing up in old fashioned clothing and making the buildings look old, their pursuit also included a “caravan,” sent off to welcome folks from other parts of the state to visit Fort Bragg.
The vehicles, an announcer, some dressed-up folks, and of course, Paul Bunyan himself with his large axe, traveled through 22 towns and cities. They ended up at the thentwo-year-old Golden Gate Bridge, where they were met by reporters and cameramen. At that point, they were joined by a police escort, which took them to the Civic Center where “Paul” was given the key to the city by San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi.
From there, they were escorted to the Redwood Empire Building at the San Francisco Worlds Fair on Treasure Island. The caravan did its job: Fort Bragg has not been without its tourists ever since!
That first Paul Bunyan was Charlie Buck. At 6’ 8” tall and 298 lbs. he was an imposing figure. Charlie came back to Fort Bragg in 1976 to be Grand Marshall of the parade. He was followed through the years by Marion Sverko, Chet Shandel, Norm Shandel (Norm was Paul Bunyan for 40 years!) and our current Paul Bunyan, Mike Stephans.
Fort Bragg has always embraced Paul Bunyan Days, with the businesses and many of its citizens donating the money to put it on. A hard-working committee puts it all together. Though it has changed over the years, with folks not quite as “rowdy” as they used to be. You can’t drag someone over to a water trough and give them a dunking anymore!
The Kangaroo Kort still arrests folks if the men don’t have any hair on their face — which they refer to as a “puss” — if someone fills out an arrest warrant for them, or if they just want to be “rowdy.” You can buy a “Smooth Puss Badge” if you want to stay out of trouble. In case your wondering, yes, they throw ladies in the Kort Jail Truck as well, for any number of reasons. It’s all in the name of fun, and everyone generally goes along with it.
And what fun they have! The kids have their own Kiddie Games, Tricycle Races and Parade on Saturday, and can watch the talented dogs compete in contests during the Ugly Dog Contest. Everyone is invited to the Craft Fair, the OldFashioned Dress Review, a Gem and Mineral Show, the huge Logging Show, a Horseshoe Contest and the Fireman’s Water Fight. There are over 25 different events going on from Friday thru Monday, when the big
Labor Day Parade happens on Main Street.
To make things more fun, starting in the ’50s, the celebrations have always had a theme. The theme is used as a guide for parade entries as well, and make for some really great floats.
Some of those themes were “Westward Ho” in 1957, “Settler Centennial” in 1967, (the Grand Marshall was Justin Tarr, one of the stars on ABC’s “Rat Patrol”), “Back to the Good Ole Days” in 1977, “Sing Along with Paul & Babe” in 1982, “Back to the ’50s with Paul & Babe” in 1996, “Paul & Babe Salute America’s Firefighters” in 1998 (Fire departments came from all over California to celebrate — Oh! The noise!) “Clowning Around with Paul & Babe” in 2008 and “Regards to Broadway” in 2018.
There were plenty of great themes of course, but we can’t list all of them here. It does make you wonder what the theme for 2021 will be, doesn’t it?
Paul Bunyan Days recognizes the men and women that worked in the timber industry, not just in the past, but today as well.
One way that’s done is by putting on a logging show. Loggers are tough people, the amount of physical work they have to do is incredible. The logging show gives folks the chance to see how logging was done by the loggers of the past, and how it is done today.
In the past, most everything was done by hand. If you wanted to cut down a tree, you had to use axes and hand saws (sometimes called misery whips) to do it. Good, effective chain saws did not come along until after WWII. The strength and agility needed to do jobs in the woods each day makes a lot of folks wonder how they did it at all. Remember this. Until the ’40s, most loggers worked at least 10 hours a day, six days a week. It was hard, physical labor!
The logging show has many different contests the loggers can enter. Axe chopping, hand sawing, choker setting, poll climbing, chainsaw cutting, and even axe throwing. (You have to have some fun!) The contests are broken into groups. Hand sawing, for example, has a single buck competition — one person on a saw — and a double buck competition — two people on a saw.
The ladies compete as well, and join up with the men on a saw for “Jack & Jill
Double Buck.” It’s a great day of competition, and Fort Bragg’s show usually has at least 20 contestants.
The last contest of the day is the pole climb. The contestants start from the bottom and race to the top to ring a bell and stop the time. You cannot believe how fast some of them go up the 60-foot pole. Points are accumulated for each contest, and the logger with the most points — men and ladies — at the end of the day get crowned “Men’s All-Around Logger” and “Ladies All-Around
Logger.”
Paul Bunyan Days represents all of what’s good in the timber industry today. A forest expo tent is always at the Logging Show, and is filled with displays about Ecology and Forestry practices and how we must protect the wildlands and their inhabitants for future generations. Paul Bunyan also gives a scholarship each year to someone so they can pursue their education in some form of forestry or ecology.
Ultimately, Paul Bunyan Days is about having fun! We hope to see everyone back in Fort Bragg next year to enjoy the events, beaches, parks and terrific businesses. We will all work hard to make it a spectacular Labor Day weekend.
John Skinner is President of the Paul Bunyan Days committee.