Fort Bragg’s Paul Bunyan Days getting rolling early-again

By Frank Hartzell | March 5, 2023

In this 1939 copy of the Fort Bragg Advocate and News, planning for the upcoming Labor Day Paul Bunyan days takes up most of the front page of the paper. Fort Bragg busines and political leaders left at the crack of dawn for a trip to the City to promote the event, to meet San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi at SF City Hall and see the sights of the city. This was an annual event. In later years, they were featured on Giants radio broadcoasts. Although 1939 is generally considered the first year of Paul Bunyan Days, the 1939 newspaper indicates the festival was held previously and was making a comeback. Fort Bragg's Paul Bunyan Days Committee has asked community members to come to a March 12 meeting and plan to join in the fun. Note the news story about the construction of much of Noyo Harbor sandwiched between a story on radio advertising for the festival and a other Paul Bunyan falderal/ Frank Hartzell The Mendocino Voice

FORT BRAGG, 3/5/23 — The Paul Bunyan Association is getting started early this year. Paul Bunyan Days is held on Labor Day weekend in Fort Bragg— and the association wants this year to be bigger and better than ever. Paul Bunyan Days will start Friday, Sept. 1 and run through Sept. 4, with a parade followed by the Lions Club Barbecue, normally the last event of a full-packed weekend. The popular event was canceled due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

A community meeting to get the public involved will be held March 14 at 6:30 p.m in the Redwood Timber Meeting Room on Chief Celeri Drive (behind PIaci Pub off West Redwood Avenue in the trailer behind the gate).

Mike Stephens will be back in the role as Paul Bunyan, which he has been playing for a decade.

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Fort Bragg’s Paul Bunyan Days Committee has asked community members to come to a March 12 meeting and plan to join in the fun. Here, Paul himself (Mike Stephens) and Babe are the subject of a joyous selfie by a tourist. Frank Hartzell-The Mendocino Voice

2022 a great success

Last year, the town’s oldest event came back with gusto, featuring the largest logging show to date, said board association president Heather Webster. Her number one goal is to get more community members involved in the town’s historic celebration of the big trees and the timber industry. “I would like the logging show to be as big, if not bigger than it was last year,” Webster said.

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One of the more popular events, the hose fights between different fire departments, couldn’t be held last year because of the drought. The city and the fire departments will have to decide whether the hose fights can reappear when the time is closer, Webster said.

The committee consists of longtime community volunteers, with some well remembered faces back in new roles. The 2023 officers: President Heather Webster Vice President Brian Larson, Treasurer Dianne Skinner, Secretary John Skinner. Other members of the board are Keith Wyner, Joseph Sverko, Jeff Gomes, Lou Sciochelletti and Judy Martin.

Drumming up business in the City

In the early days, Fort Bragg business and community leaders drove down to San Francisco in the summer to entice San Franciscans to make the arduous trip up the coast for the spectacular and traditional summer-ending Paul Bunyan Days (see 1939 newspaper clipping). Fort Bragg residents drove around The City with banners on their cars, performed on Fisherman’s Wharf and made appearances on Giants radio broadcasts (that was during the 1950s).

Back in Fort Bragg, lumber trucks and workers were responsible for part of the weekend’s events, including actual log-rolling in the Noyo River, now deemed too dangerous.(An updated log rolling contest was revived at CV Starr Aquatic Center in recent years.) Paul Bunyan Days is said to have started in 1939 as a Labor Day event, was suspended during World War II, then returned in 1946 as a 4th of July celebration. That turned out to be a bad idea, and the event returned to the Labor Day weekend during the 1950s. However, the 1939 newspaper references earlier but undated Paul Bunyan Days celebrations.

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Another event from the old days unlikely to make a comeback was a “Bull of the Redwoods” contest in which local men would fight in an arena for the title of toughest guy in town.

One of the events favored among locals is the Old Fashioned Dress Review, headed by Sverko. Paul Bunyan Days tries to recast the dress and traditions and myths of the “Old West” 19th century days.

There are many long-standing traditions: the Belle of the Redwoods contest, Friends of the Library Book Sale, Gem and Mineral Show, Logging Show, Ugliest Dog Contest (with many categories such as smartest, prettiest and Frisbee dog) and Kangaroo Kort “arrests,” among many other events.

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