Babe the Big Blue Ox
Hello all! It’s Eugene
again. Today I am going to tell the story
of Babe
the Big Blue Ox. As more towns started to form, Paul had more trees to
cut, and had to find a
better way
to haul the logs. Paul thought of this problem constantly.
While in Way Woodsy, North Dakota, Paul was playing a game of
poker with some of the local logging crews. Paul
had a good hand and raised the pot more
than the others could afford. After
looking around, Paul agreed that if he won that he would accept the
little blue
ox as payment. Well, just as Paul had
thought he would,
he won. Paul went back to the tent with
his new blue ox and named him Babe.
After
Babe
was full grown he could eat as much as five bushels of hay between
feeding
as a
snack. With all of the snacks and regular
meals
that Babe ate, it was very expensive. Paul’s
bookkeeper,
Johnny Inkslinger, figured the cost of keeping Babe around. Although the cost was high, the profit was
even more. With Babe leading the pulling
team, they could haul almost seven times the normal load.
This allowed for bigger loads, which allowed
for more trees cut.
Babe‘s
size
was unlike the size of any ox known to man. He
was
so big that when he walked, his footprints were so spread out that he
was
impossible to track. His feet were as
big as a four-bedroom cabin. I once
saw
a man fall into one of Babe's footprints, and he had to be pulled out
by
twelve men.
During the spring of 1915 while Bunyan
and Babe were in
Oregon, it rained night and day for a week.
This rain caused the rivers to flood and made them impassable. Paul desperately needed to get to California,
but the rivers were too big, even for his great swimming ability. After the rain had stopped, Paul brought Babe
to the river bank and had him drink.
Babe drank the river dry, with one gulp.
This allowed Paul and his crew to go to California and clear the
northern half by summer.
Don't forget to check back next week to hear about
Paul Bunyan and his master craftsmanship.
Author's notes:
I again told this story from Eugene the reporter’s point of
view. There are many stories about Babe
the Big Blue Ox, his amazing size, and great strength.
I could not find a story that told where Babe
came from or how Paul had got him. I
thought that it would be fun to make up a new one, so I made up the
story of
Paul winning Babe as a baby. There are
also stories about Babe loving pancakes, so I added that pancakes are
what made
Babe grow. The story about the man who
fell into the footprint is from the book by Laughead cited below.
It was actually a man and his wife. I
changed the story to the man alone so I could add the
twelve men pulling him out. I thought
that by adding a number here, it caused the footprint to appear much
bigger.
The
cost analysis by Johnny Inkslinger is also in one of the original
stories. I like this story because it
showed what it actually
took to keep Babe around. It also showed
just how much as an asset that he was to the logging team.
I also got the story about Babe drinking the
river dry from Laughead's book, and changed a few details.
Biblography:
The Marvelous
Exploits of Paul
Bunyan as
Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations
During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North
Woods From Maine to California
W. B. Laughead 1934
Website: Books
about California
Image from Lakes
area spotlight website.