PAUL BUNYAN IN ARIZONA

Paul Bunyan in Arizona PREFACE

FOR the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar with the Paul Bunyan sagas, we offer this brief introduction: Paul Bunyan was the legendary hero of the logging camps. He might well be called the patron saint of the lumbering industry. From Maine to Washington, in every state and province where lumbering was carried on, Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox were perhaps the subjects of more conversation than all other topics combined. During the long winter evenings hundreds of bunkhouses echoed with the tales of the exploits of our hero.

Prior to the amazing discoveries recounted in this brief history, the origin of Paul Bunyan was in dispute. Some claimed that he originated in Canada while others maintained that he followed the course of the American lumbering industry from Maine to Washington.

It is with the view to clearing up the mystery enshrouding the earlier activities of Paul Bunyan, that the disclosures in the following pages are made. Arizona, the Baby State, has recorded the longest continuous period of human habitation of any area under consideration. With the evidences of his work so undeniably in existence, who may doubt that Paul Bunyan commenced his long active life within our borders?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Paul Bunyan, hero of the Sagas of Legendary Lumberman of the North-Believe Them or Not while he was developing the Big Stope, in Arizona, acquired his first vast fortune.

HERE is an old adage to the effect that there is nothing new under the sun. It has been said that ancient Greece and Egypt experimented with dictators, price-fixing and economics of scarcity, and many of the other situations current in the world at present. It was not until recently, however, that certain disclosures were made, establishing on this continent the exist-ence of a Boulder Dam, thirty-five dol-lar gold, stream-lined transportation, and many other so-called innovations, even prior to the memorable Winter of the Blue Snow.

JANUARY, 1938 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

It can be shown that Paul Bunyan, of Round River fame, engaged in the log-ging industry in Michigan only after he had dissipated the vast fortune he amassed from his Arizona mine, the Big Stope. Some of us may have heard legends from the Indians concerning a famous Chief Heap Big Hole-in-the-Ground, and the underground Kivas of the Hopi bear testimony of his influence on the architecture of the period. It is generally believed that the first venture in mining ended in a disastrous fire which destroyed all of the company re-cords, hence we must be content with a reconstruction of the picture from the evidence remaining.

It appears that Mormon Lake now oc-cupies the site of the old shaft which caved after the fire, and the elevation to the west was the dump. The shaft was sunk in ore, and drifting done about the same distance on either side of the shaft on a strike ten degrees north of east. We have no knowledge of the ex-tent of the workings off the east drift, but we do know that a raise was put through to the surface in the vicinity of what is now Winslow, and mining was carried on by glory-holing.

Some skeptics will assert that this glory-hole was caused by a meteor, and the Government has taken cognizance of the theory to the extent of naming it Meteor Crater, and giving it the status of a national monument. Without stop-ping to elevate this celestial propaganda to controversial dignity, let us proceed.

A short distance to the east of the glory-hole the ground is littered with lengths of impregnated timber, cut, peeled, treated and morticed, ready to be taken below to be used for drift and square-sets. Despite the fact that this area has been designated as the Petri-fied Forest, anyone who has ever been in sight of a gallows-frame will immediately recognize it as the ruins of an old timber-framing shed. Originally there were enormous stacks of these timbers, but the constant stream of tourist and souvenir-hunters depleted them to the point where it was necessary to pass legislation to protect these relics for the benefit of posterity. A number of them were carted down to Phoenix and mounted on pedestals around the State Capitol, and there they remain as a lasting memorial to Arizona's first timber framer. Were they, too, caused by a meteor? Perhaps it just rained saw-logs.

While we are on the subject of timber, where do those people in Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, Canada, and elsewhere, get the notion that Paul Bunyan learned the logging trade up there. Arizona can still lay claim to the largest stands of virgin pine in the country. Even Paul was unable to log it off, but look what he did to those other localities. When those people wish to see really old timber, treated to last forever, they may do so from Highway 66 on their next trip. And did the old maestro get any credit for his accomplishments? He did not. Had he been a politician instead of an honest old lumberjack, the area would now be designated as Framing-shed No. 2, Paul Bunyan Mining Company. But such is the ingratitude of humanity.

On the other side of the shaft, he drifted west, ten degrees south, to the vicinity of what is now Jerome. At this point he apparently struck high-grade, for he punched a raise through and started taking out ore. From the size of the dump, down the sides of which the city of Jerome is now sliding, the workings must have been stupendous. The vast underground caverns are undoubtedly the cause of the present instability of the terrain. It was said that the extensive work carried on at a later date by the United Verde may have been the cause of this shifting. Why those fellows merely worked Paul's dump! From the engineer's standpoint, the most striking evidence of Paul's prior operation lies in the following fact: point he apparently struck high-grade, for he punched a raise through and started taking out ore. From the size of the dump, down the sides of which the city of Jerome is now sliding, the workings must have been stupendous. The vast underground caverns are un-doubtedly the cause of the present in-stability of the terrain. It was said that the extensive work carried on at a later date by the United. Verde may have been the cause of this shifting. Why those fellows merely worked Paul's dump! From the engineer's standpoint, the most striking evidence of Paul's prior operation lies in the following fact: The mines in the district today have a history of excessively high temperatures underground, which shows that the fire which wiped out the Bunyan company was burning in some of the distant headings as recently as 1875 when the Verde people went in there.

The largest camp appears to have been just southeast of the big workings at Montezuma, with smaller ones at Wal nut Canyon and elsewhere in the vicinity. These camps were built by the company for the use of their employees. They were apartment houses, several stories in height, hewn out of the solid rock of the cliffs. We were told that these structures were built by Cliff-Dwellers, so-called aborigines. We smiled, for we knew that the aborigines had not yet come into the district. However, for the sake of argument we asked our informant how the savages had whittled out such a large volume of rock. He said that they high-graded jackhammers off the Bunyan job. Now while it is true that there are still a lot of hot machines being peddled up there, and it is almost impossible to tell, after the serial numbers have been filed off, whether they came from the W. P. A., the Bunyan job, or the Highway Department, we are still of the opinion that the camps were all built by the company. Note the way they were abandoned so abruptly. In fact, the exodus interrupted the preparation of meals, as has been shown by the findings of prominent archeologists from the University of Arizona and elsewhere. Now if these houses belonged to the aborigines, why did they leave? No, the fact is, the disastrous fire caught most of Paul's crew underground, and there was no one left coming off shift to eat the meals except the top men, and they probably migrated and went to work for other outfits when the Bunyan company left the district.

Just north of the company project in Walnut Canyon, was a group of buildings which included the general headquarters, the laboratory and assay house, and the commissary. Part of the assay-furnace may be seen today surrounded by piles of slag where the assayer slagged-off the lead buttons. The professional explainers call this Sunset Crater and tell us that it is an extinct volcano. They say that the slag is an old lava flow, that the glazed fragments of broken crucibles are basaltic mineral, and the piles of old bone-ash cupels are merely volcanic ash, and so on indefinitely. We cannot enter into a discussion with them, for they have the edge with the two-dollar words. But here's one, right next door-the Ice Caves. Now "ice" is something in one syllable that we all understand, so the "pros" wisely refrained from attempting to explain why it prefers to spend the summers in Arizona. The evidence is incontrovertible. The Bunyan commissary was par excellence. His cold storage warehouses contained the finest refrigeration units which could be imported into the United States from Minnesota, and we will make the prediction that there is still enough cold stored in those old ruined compartments to keep the temperature below the legal requirements for a long time to come.

We are completely out of patience with the person who remains oblivious to facts and frames the most fantastic explanations for the commonplaces which are even yet routine in a well-regulated mining establishment. If these individuals are sincere in their agnosticism and really seek the truth, why do they not consult the authorities? For example: scarcely a stone's throw from the old headquarters of the Paul Bunyan Mining Co., is the ancient village of Oraibi. This village is recognized as the oldest continuously-inhabited village in the country. Ordinarily we put little faith in superlatives, but here is a natural. Thirsting for information, we journeyed to Oraibi, the same old Oraibi where Paul's miners bought their mescal and tequila, for the Bunyan camps were notoriously dry. We met an old, old Indian, a member of the Hopi tribe. We interrogated him.

"Have you, or any of your ancestors, ever seen a volcano erupting in the old assay house?"

He was most emphatic. "No, no. No volcano."

We were not satisfied, and in the interest of fairness, asked: "Have you ever seen white men tak-"

JANUARY, 1938 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

ing samples of rock in Sunset Crater, business will be illustrated in the story pendent sources, resulting in a substanthat hill over there?" of his subsequent activities in the followtially accurate account of the company's His enthusiasm was unbounded. ing pages. activities. Chronologically, these events "Heap big work all time. Pale-face occurred after the fire previously mentake plenty sample rock." tioned, since several references to it There you have it. How can anyone were found. The claims were located refute evidence so impartially gathered? and surveyed during the "Fall of the It was Paul Bunyan to a T. Our reLow Fog" which antedated by several searches in Bunyaniana have convinced years the "Winter of the Blue Snow." us that he had a mania for excessive Early that Autumn the entire Southsampling and certainly kept the assayers west was blanketed by a pall of dense working overtime. gray fog which in Arizona was dissipatIt must be evident by this time that we ed the following Spring. Such a terrific have uncovered a great deal of the early amount of fog of all varieties was creathistory of Paul Bunyan and his first ed that Winter that it will be many, venture in mining. No doubt it was many years before it is all used up in not so tough a racket in those days as the less favored areas, especially along now at least, the tax burden was not the Coast. so irksome. The mine inspector must As soon as the weather cleared, Paul have been pretty lenient, too, for Paul commenced his sinking operations. He got by with murder until they caught started a ten-compartment shaft, and up with him on that second raise. The in view of later developments, this proved thoroughness with which he learned the We have now come to the period of which we have an authentic record of the history of the Paul Bunyan Mining Co. During some recent explorations in Mohave County, part of the old company files were found. They were in an old stone house in Mineral Park, in the Cerbat Mountains, and were in a fair state of preservation. During the early Indian days, Federal troops had been stationed in Mineral Park, then the county seat, and the old building had been used as a store-room. Nothing is known of the origin of the structure, but it had the appearance of great antiquity.

The story gleaned from these records was carefully assembled and checked against other information from inde-

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