Cordwood Pete
Cordwood Pete is a fictional character who was the younger brother of legendary lumberjack Paul Bunyan. While Paul is said to have been a giant, Pete was a mere 4 feet 9 inches (1.45 m) in height. His growth was supposedly stunted by a lack of flapjacks at the breakfast table, since Paul ate everything in sight.
Biography[edit]
According to legend, Paul left his home in Bangor, Maine, to make his way in the world, and arrived in the north woods of Minnesota, where he excelled as a lumberjack. Pete, tired of mockery by Maine lumberjacks about his size, followed Paul to Minnesota and, despite his diminutive stature, found work as a lumberjack near Fosston.
Local lumberjacks nicknamed him "Le Dang Cordwood Pete" because his size suggested he was more suited to cutting cordwood than felling trees. He frequented the local saloons, where his fellow lumberjacks learned he was hot-tempered and full of spunk, especially after imbibing. They came to admire his feisty spirit, and no one dared fight him.
Pete borrowed his brother's double-bladed ax one day. He swung it, and its weight kept it spinning, as if in perpetual motion. When it stopped (as all things must), 100 acres (0.40 km2) of timber had been felled. The railroad hired him the next day to clear a path for train tracks, and before night fell, he had clear-cut fifty square miles of timber. He returned his brother's ax the next day, and never again achieved such a feat.[1]
After that, Pete stuck to cutting cordwood, which he hauled to market on his little donkey named Tamarack. He died at the age of 84.
Historiography[edit]
The story of Cordwood Pete had been all but forgotten until the spring of 2001, when it was discovered in a time capsule by a work crew demolishing one of Fosston's oldest buildings.[2]
References[edit]
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