For most of the nineteenth century, the timber trade in North American forests fostered the immigration of European woodcutters—rough-cut men who braved the long winters and dangerous conditions that became the foundation for some of the most colorful yarns told about the wild frontier. Although anecdotal stories were shared in isolated lumber camps and in the local taverns of mill towns, it wasn’t until the 1930s that a romanticized ideal of these rugged men found form in the pop culture figures of Paul Bunyan and his brethren. Although Bunyan and his colorful companions loom larger than life in lumberjack lore, there are many more little-known tales about the real men who lived and worked in the vast forests that once stretched from coast to coast.
The high demand for lumber, coupled with the plentiful timber stands in the New World, required a labor force of experienced woodcutters, which were often found in recruits from northern Europe and the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The first logging camps in North America were located in the Canadian territories and the Northeastern United States. In the early days, these workers were called lumbermen or bûcherons (loggers). It wasn’t until the 1830s that the term “lumberjack” made its first appearance in a Canadian newspaper. Before long, this newly crafted designation became the word of choice to describe the rough-and-tumble men working in the logging camps on both sides of the border.
Nothing about life in a logging camp was easy. For starters, lumberjacks were always on the move: once the lumber was depleted in one area, logging operations would shut down and reopen in a new location prime for harvesting. In addition to its transient nature, logging was also seasonal work. The actual felling of trees occurred in winter when the trees were dormant, whereas the transportation of logs downriver to the lumber mills occurred in spring. The remote locales, hazardous work, and long winters required exceptionally strong men, who were able to endure the challenging demands of this arduous occupation. Lumberjack oral traditions only strengthened the highly regarded values of individuality, masculinity, and physical strength. These attributes were further embellished in tall tales featuring romanticized folk heroes able to accomplish monumental feats of physical prowess.
The most famous of the legendary lumberjacks is Paul Bunyan—a figure of ultimate masculinity created by advertising executives and embellished by urban journalists. Famous stories of the brawny behemoth and his faithful companion, Babe the Blue Ox, grew out of an advertising campaign strategized by the Red River Lumber Company of Minnesota. Known for his superhuman abilities and remarkable size, this strongman of the remote forests became enshrined in a series of tall tales. Paul Bunyan is known today for being a man’s man. His coarse features, thick beard, and iconic clothing (a red flannel shirt, suspenders, and heavy spike-soled boots) have since become entrenched in the modern stereotype of the American lumberjack.
Long before the stories of Paul Bunyan’s colossal feats of strength became part of the tall tale tradition, the cultural identity of lumberjacks was spread from camp to camp through the transmission of oral traditions. Around campfires and in the close confines of cramped bunkhouses, loggers shared stories about lumberjacks with charmed lives and special powers. Although they are missing the polish of the folktales told about Paul Bunyan and his kin, these rough-hewn stories are chock-full of eccentric, real-life characters also known for their herculean strength, roguish tricks, and clever comebacks.
Next to the myth of the master lumberman, Paul Bunyan, one of the most well-known historical lumberjacks is Big Joe Mufferaw. Believed to have been modeled after the athletic French Canadian logger Joseph “Jos” Montferrand, this folk hero’s adventures ranged from the Ottawa Valley down into the Northeastern United States. In Canada, Big Joe Mufferaw is best known as the hero of the song “Stompin’ Tom Connors.” In this famous tune and in other fictionalized accounts, Big Joe Mufferaw is credited with numerous deeds such as using spit balls to extinguish a forest fire, creating a lake from his sweat, and cutting a canal in the countryside from his frequent visits to his favorite gal in Kemptville.
The real man behind the caricature was just as colorful. Born in 1802, Montferrand garnered recognition for his agility and strength in the boxing ring. By his mid-twenties, he shouldered the duties of a lumberman and began working his new trade in the pine forests of the Rivière du Nord. For more than thirty years, Montferrand ruled as the king of the Ottawa River. And, time and time again, his boxing skills served him well. Legends of his routs range the gamut from killing a man with one blow from his fist to single-handedly stopping a band of 150 “Shiners” bent on destruction. He died in 1864, but his famous feats were incorporated in local lore, which then spread to the lumber centers in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Eventually, the man became indistinguishable from the myth, living on in legend as a popular hero of French Canadian tall tales.
Although many people envision lumberjacks as the men who actually cut down the trees, there were many other jobs to be done in the early logging camps. Composed almost exclusively of men, logging crews relied on an intricate system of teamwork. In addition to the fellers and bucklers, other members of the logging crews worked in a variety of roles including whistle punks, hook tenders, chasers, high climbers, yarder operators, and choker setters. In the spring, when the snow began to melt and the rivers opened up, lumbermen would then drive the logs down the waterways to the lumber mills. These industrious and agile members of the logging crews went by such names as river pig, catty-man, river hog, or river rat.
Only the strongest of the strong took on more than one job. Of those who were capable of working multiple positions in the logging camps, several became renowned as legends in their own right. Otto Walta was one of these men. Like many of the immigrant woodcutters from Scandinavia, Walta sought a brighter future in the northern reaches of the Great Lakes states. According to local lore, this quiet hard-working man could rip trees out of the ground with the aid of an 800-pound rail and could easily carry a bear carcass on his back over miles of rough terrain. Walta’s herculean accomplishments have since entered the chronicles of folklore in northern Minnesota alongside the robust Swede Ola Värmlänning, a charming trickster with a penchant for whiskey and a ribald sense of humor.
However, one of the most intriguing characters in the lumberjack folk-hero tradition is George Knox, who purportedly sold his soul to the devil in return for supernatural aid and magical powers. Although Knox was never seen at work, he was said to have performed tremendous tasks in a wide variety of lumberjack roles including work as a faller, teamster, yard man, and river driver. This storied figure from Maine reputedly owned an axe that would chop trees down by itself, employed the devil’s imps to move massive rocks and logs during the night, and could spell whiskey out of a tree.
In reality, these great individualists constantly faced the ever-changing problems inherent to the lumber trade. By the 1940s, modern machinery had changed the face of logging, making many of the traditional jobs on logging crews obsolete. However, tall tales of such legendary loggers as Paul Bunyan, Big Joe Mufferaw, and George Knox serve as a reminder of a time when “he-men could talk to he-men in he-man language.”
Carina Bissett
See also Babe the Blue Ox; Dancing with the Devil; Mountain Men; Paul Bunyan; Tall Tales; Tony Beaver
Further Reading
Botkin, B. A. 1983. “Paul Bunyan.” In A Treasury of American Folklore, 204–227. New York: Crown.
Dorson, Richard M. 1973. “Lumberjacks.” In America in Legend: Folklore from the Colonial Period to the Present, 153–184. New York: Pantheon Books.
Holbrook, Stewart H. 1938. Holy Old Mackinaw: A Natural History of the American Lumberjack. New York: Macmillan.
MacKay, Donald. 2007. The Lumberjacks. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books.