In the early days, whenever Paul Bunyan was broke between logging seasons, he traveled around like other lumberjacks doing any kind of pioneering work he could find.  He showed up in Washington about the time The Puget Construction Co. was building Puget Sound and Billy Puget was making records moving dirt with droves of dirt throwing badgers.  Paul and Billy got into an argument over who had shoveled the most.  Paul got mad and said he’d show Billy Puget and started to throw the dirt back again.  Before Billy stopped him he had piled up the San Juan Islands.

When a man gets the reputation in the woods of being a “good man” it refers only to physical prowess.  Frequently he is challenged to fight by “good men” from other communities.

There was Pete Mufraw.  “You know Joe Mufraw?” “Oui, two Joe Mufraw, one named Pete.”  That’s the fellow.  After Pete had licked everybody between Quebec and Bay Chaleur he started to look for Paul Bunyan.  He bragged all over the country that he had worn out six pair of shoe-pacs looking for Paul.  Finally he met up with him.

Paul was plowing with two yoke of steers and Pete Mufraw stopped at the brush-fence to watch the plow cut its way right through rocks and stumps.  When they reached the end of the furrow Paul picked up the plow and the oxen with one arm and turned them around.  Pete took one look and then wandered off down the trail muttering, “Hox an’ hall!  She’s lift hox an’ hall.”

Paul Bunyan started traveling before the steam cars were invented.  He developed his own means of transportation and the railroads have never been able to catch up.  Time is so valuable to Paul he has no time to fool around at sixty miles an hour.

In the early days he rode on the back of Babe, the Big Blue Ox.  This had its difficulties because he had to use a telescope to keep Babe’s hind legs in view and the hooves of the ox created such havoc that after the settlements came into different parts of the country there were heavy damage claims to settle every trip.

Snowshoes were useful in winter but one trip on the webs cured Paul of depending upon them for transcontinental bikes.  He started from Minnesota for Westwood one Spring morning.  There was still snow in the woods so Paul wore his snowshoes.  He soon ran out of the snow belt but kept right on without reducing speed.  Crossing the desert the heat became oppressive, his mackinaws grew heavy and the snowshoes dragged his feet but it was too late to turn back.

When he arrived in California he discovered that the sun and hot sand had warped one of his shoes and pulled one foot out of line at every step, so instead of traveling on a bee line and hitting Westwood exactly, he came out at San Francisco.  This made it necessary for him to travel an extra three hundred miles north.  It was late that night when he pulled into Westwood and he had used up a whole day coming from Minnesota.