It's a glorious map! I also grew up with Paul Bunyan stories, but where I spent my early childhood was the Willamette Valley in northwestern Oregon. Our Bunyan tales were set in the Coast Range and Cascades and even some in BC's boreal forests. I think he's one of those folklore icons (along with Babe, who skidded trees for him in place of a draft horse) whose area of origin is often tailored to where the story's told.
And the whole point of folklore is the tales aren't history, but they're there to teach a lesson or reveal a theme. I think if you asked 10 people who grew up in different places but all loved Johnny Appleseed stories, they'd all give his home town as somewhere in the state where they grew up. Locations and even names can be changed but the lessons remain
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03-28-2017, 08:20 AM
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