Paul Bunyan offers tourists young and old to pose with him during the three-day festival. (Frank Hartzell via Bay City News)

FORT BRAGG, CA., 8/27/24 –– In 1967, a train car carrying members of the San Francisco Bay Area press corps got a free trip to Fort Bragg so they could cover Paul Bunyan Days. The then-renowned “Super Skunk Special” passenger train entered the redwood forest between Willits and Ukiah, and the food and drinks were flowing.

Suddenly, a posse of horseback riders waylaid the train, firing into the air and hollering “robbery” as they made their way through the cars. The dramatic holdup by Chamber of Commerce desperados was outreach by the Paul Bunyan Association.

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Frank Hartzell is a freelancer reporter and an occasional correspondent for The Mendocino Voice. He has published more than 10,000 news articles since his first job in Houston in 1986. He is the recipient...