Cordwood Pete

Cordwood Pete is a fictional

character who was the
younger brother of legendary
lumberjack Paul Bunyan.
While Paul Bunyan is said to
have been a giant of a man,
his younger brother Peter
Bunyan was a mere 4 feet
9 inches (1.45 m) in height.
Pete's growth was apparently Lumberjacks at work in Minnesota
stunted by the fact that he
could never get enough
flapjacks at the breakfast
table. Paul ate everything in
sight.

According to legend, Paul

Bunyan left his home in
Lumberjack Cordwood Pete Bangor, Maine, to make his
way in the world, and ended
up in the north woods of
Minnesota where he excelled as a lumberjack. Pete, tired of being Lumberjack camp and crew
mocked by lumberjacks in Maine because of his size, followed Paul
to Minnesota, and despite his diminutive stature, found work as a
lumberjack near Fosston, Minnesota.

Local lumberjacks nicknamed him "Le Dang Cordwood Pete" because his size suggested he was more suited
to cutting cordwood than felling huge trees. Pete spent much time in the local saloons, and his fellow
lumberjacks soon learned he was hot tempered and full of spunk, especially after imbibing. They came to
admire his feisty spirit, and no one dared fight him.

Legend has it that he "borrowed" his brother's double-bladed ax one day. He swung the ax, and its weight
kept the ax spinning round and round as if in perpetual motion. When the ax finally stopped spinning, 100
acres (0.40 km2 ) of timber had been felled. The railroad hired Pete the next day to clear a path for their tracks,
and before the day was over, he had clear-cut fifty square miles of timber. Pete had to give his brother's ax
back to him the next day, and he never again achieved such a lumberjacking feat.[1]

After that Pete stuck to cutting cordwood which he hauled to market with the help of his little donkey named
Tamarack. He died at the age of 84.

The story of Cordwood Pete had been all but forgotten until the spring of 2001 when a time capsule was
discovered by a work crew demolishing one of Fosston's oldest buildings. Inside was the complete story of
Cordwood Pete, younger brother of legendary lumberjack Paul Bunyan.[2]

Authors Richard Dorson and Marshall Fitwick cite Paul Bunyan as an example of "fakelore", or a modern
story passed off as an older folktale.[3][4] It is possible that the legend of Cordwood Pete may also qualify as
"fakelore." Some suggest the legend was created by Arvid "Clem" Clementson who was the mayor of Fosston
when he died at the age of 81.[5]
References
1. Fosston.com (http://www.fosston.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={FD14779F-1317-450
C-930F-A2CA8F031CAB})
2. Weird Minnesota By Eric Dregni, Mark Moran, Mark Sceurman (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=T9okjBKav1oC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq)
3. Fitwick, Marshall. Probing popular culture on and off the Internet. Routledge, 2004, ISBN 978-
0-7890-2133-5, p. 114-118
4. Dorson, Richard. American Folklore. University of Chicago Press, 1977, ISBN 978-0-226-
15859-4, p. 216-226
5. Obituary of Arvid "Clem" Clementson (http://www.genealogybuff.com/mn/polk/webbbs_config.p
l/read/15)

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This page was last edited on 30 December 2020, at 19:02 (UTC).

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