Paul Bunyan is perhaps America’s best-known folk hero. A fictional logger of incredible strength, he was most likely based on an actual nineteenth-century logger from the northern United States or Canada. As a folk hero, he struck a chord with Americans on some level, perhaps because he was incredibly strong but also because he was hard-working and capable, ingenious in solving problems, and fun-loving. Though there is evidence that Paul Bunyan tales were part of oral tradition in the nineteenth century, Paul Bunyan stories did not appear in written form until the early twentieth century. Journalist James McGillivray included descriptions of Bunyan in a series of essays entitled "The Round River Drive," which appeared in a number of Midwestern newspapers between 1906 and 1910. However, it was through an extensive advertising campaign that Paul Bunyan moved solidly into print. Recognizing the appeal of Paul Bunyan as a figure for his company’s advertising, William Laughead, an advertising executive for the Red River Lumber Company, initiated a campaign that consisted of a series of publications featuring Paul Bunyan. For several decades, the company distributed these publications free of charge and made no attempt to obtain a copyright on them. In fact, the company vigorously encouraged other writers to make use of Paul Bunyan because it felt that the use of this character enhanced the name recognition of the Red River Lumber Company inasmuch as the name of the folk hero and the name of the company had become interwoven. The Bunyan stories published by Red River and further circulated by others were tall tales of gigantic proportions. In these tales, Bunyan is depicted as a man of superhuman proportions, who is strong, hard-working, entrepreneurial, and innovative. In one story, for example, Paul is credited with digging the Great Lakes in order to create a watering hole for his giant ox, Babe. In another of these tales, Paul caused an entire winter of blue snow to fall by swearing a blue streak after he injured himself by smashing his thumb with a large hammer. A third story in the series describes Paul’s role in establishing the Mississippi River. Fascination with Paul Bunyan has continued to grow, and today he is a standard of American folklore. The prevalence of Bunyan as a figure of folklore today is evidenced by references to him in countless stories, cartoons, poems, and songs as well as the numerous community festivals and logging competitions featuring Paul Bunyan that can be found throughout the sections of the country where logging has a strong tradition. The word "countless" in the last paragraph could best be replaced by the expression