SCENIC FLIGHT (Day 5 - part 6)

The houses in Maine all seem to be very large, very ornate and often historic. I never got tired of looking at the huge diversity of colors, styles and shapes!

Once back in Bangor, we visited a large Paul Bunyan statue.

Paul wields a double-sided ax and lumberjack's peavey.

Numerous towns claim to be the birthplace of the legendary giant woodsman Paul Bunyan. Bangor is no exception.... and even supposedly has his birth certificate displayed in city hall. Born in 1834, he weighed 50 pounds. It took five storks to deliver him. His cradle was the size of an arc and had to be moored in nearby Penobscot Bay. Fairly quickly, his parents had to move him to the woods up north where he'd have more room to grow.

Everywhere he went, he left a mark. He dug out the Great Lakes to create a watering hole for his companion, Babe the Blue Ox. He built Mount Hood by stacking stones to put out his huge campfire. And he once let his peavy drag behind him, creating the Grand Canyon. The stories of his feats were shared by woodsmen at logging camps throughout the country and were first published in the Detroit News-Tribune in 1910.

Logging in Maine began in the early 1600s, with the first water-powered sawmill being built in 1634. By 1832, Bangor had become the world's largest shipping port for lumber. As many as 3,000 lined the shores of the Penobscot River. Lumbermen counted on springtime snowmelt to surge rivers for transporting their logs to the mills. Joseph Peavey invented a tool to help wrestle free the massive log jams.

Bangor was going to be celebrating its 125th anniversary in 1959. In order to honor the city's legacy as The Lumber Capital of the World, it was suggested the statue be built. It was designed by local artist J. Normand Martin (1926-2021). After modeling it in clay, the Messmore and Damon company (who had created exhibits for the 1939 World Fair in New York) began construction. The 3,700 pound, 31-foot-tall, steel-framed fiberglass statue was engineered to withstand winds of up to 140 miles per hour.

We passed through more impressive homes. The streets were generally also very wide.

We got back to our hotel a bit after 2 pm. Lunch was our leftover burritos from yesterday. By 3 pm, it had started raining, so we felt wise with our decision to return. We spent the evening resting a bit and watching some tv.

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