Northern Michigan is home to three Paul Bunyan statues, two of which are located along the U.S.-23 Heritage Route.

Travelers headed north along the heritage route will first pass a Paul Bunyan statue at Furtaw Field in Oscoda. About 40 miles farther north, a statue of Paul and Babe the Blue Ox is located in the southwest corner of U.S.-23 and Nicholson Hill Road.

A third Paul Bunyan statue, formerly known as Kaiser Paul, was repainted and is now located at Alpena Community College where he serves as the lumberjack mascot for the college’s sports teams.

Oscoda was recognized by the Michigan House of Representatives in 2005 as the birthplace of Paul Bunyan with a formal proclamation, after news reporter James MacGillivray in 1906 published stories about the lumberjack in the Oscoda News.

News Photo by Crystal Nelson TOP: The lumberjack outside of Alpena Community College’s Park Arena was previously a Paul Bunyan statue called Kaiser Paul.

MacGillivray’s stories are based on the French-Canadian logger, Fabian Fournier who moved to Michigan after the Civil War where he worked as a lumberjack for the H.M. Loud Company, according to the proclamation.

Fournier was said to be exceedingly large, strong, and the top logger in the state. The proclamation says Fournier was renamed Paul Bunyan based on a mythical character of the same name arising from the French-Canadian Papineau Rebellion of 1837.

Oscoda has further embraced its love for Paul Bunyan by hosting its annual Paul Bunyan Days, where festival goers can watch a chainsaw carving contest, participate in a lumberjack and Jill look-alike contest, and participate in a beard competition. This year’s festival is scheduled for Sept. 17-19 at Furtaw Field in Oscoda.

The Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Ossineke were originally located at Look Out Inn.

Sanborn Township Supervisor Ken Gauthier said the ox was built first and that Walter Hayden and Paul Domke worked together to build Paul Bunyan. Domke was the folk artist who constructed the dinosaur statues at Dinosaur Gardens while Hayden owned Hayden’s Acres, a tourist attraction known for its wigwam.

Courtesy Photo/The Oscoda Press Paul Bunyan is pictured at Furtaw Field in Oscoda ahead of Oscoda Rock Fest.

Gauthier said when the township learned the property owners wanted to sell the statue, the statue was relocated to Ossineke.

“It was just something that was part of our heritage that we wanted to preserve,” Gauthier said.

The Alpena Community College lumberjack mascot located outside of Park Arena is a symbol of the region’s lumbering heritage. The lumberjack was formerly a statue of Paul Bunyan, known as Kaiser Paul, and was created for the owner of the Paul Bunyan’s Gas and Eat store in Gaylord.

Kaiser Paul is made almost entirely out of fenders and hoods from Kaiser automobiles, which were made in the U.S. from about 1946 to the mid-1960s.

In 1998, ACC President Don Newport arranged for Kaiser Paul’s move to the college and the statue was repaired by the college’s auto body program. He received a fresh coat of paint in 2004.