Parents never have an easy time. Children are always asking questions that demand scientific answers \u2014 questions like “Why is the sky blue?”<\/p>\n
But for the past 100 years, American parents have had an easy alternative when small children ask complex questions about geology, like “How was the Grand Canyon formed?” and “Where do the Great Lakes come from?” Instead of explaining erosion and glacial retreat<\/span>, they can simply quote from a popular folk legend.<\/p>\n Paul Bunyan<\/b> was a lumberjack<\/span> of enormous size whose actions carved<\/span> all the wonders of the American outdoors<\/span>. Together with Babe<\/b>, a giant blue ox, he cleared<\/span> the American Midwest for farming.<\/p>\n Walking around Minnesota, Paul and Babe made deep tracks, which filled up with rainwater and became the 10,000 lakes for which the state is famous. Paul dug the nearby Great Lakes for Babe to drink from. He formed the Grand Canyon while walking out West, dragging his axe<\/span> behind him.<\/p>\n I personally found the Bunyan stories terrifying<\/span>, as I imagined the danger of being crushed<\/span> beneath his oversized boots. But in Michigan and Minnesota, he is a gentle colossus often remembered<\/a> in roadside statuary<\/span>.<\/p>\n Some sources say Paul Bunyan was the subject of “tall tales<\/span>” told by Midwestern lumberjacks around their campfires. Others name journalist James MacGillivray as the author of a newspaper story about Bunyan in 1906 and a collection of Bunyan stories in 1910.<\/p>\nPaul Bunyan<\/h2>\n