FORT BRAGG, CA., 9/5/26 — A man in a red plaid shirt and a knit cap shouldered an axe the size of a surfboard, leading a line of children, wagons and parents down Franklin Street on Saturday, the second day of Fort Bragg’s annual Paul Bunyan Days.
Paul was Mike Stephens, who has carried the axe for the Paul Bunyan Days Association for more than a decade. The four-day Labor Day festival has run in Fort Bragg since 1939, and the association bills it as the oldest and largest on the Mendocino Coast. This year’s theme is “Back to School with Paul and Babe.”
The day started at the association’s booth at Laurel and Franklin streets, where Paula, who works at Mendocino Coast Pharmacy, sold shirts and handed out the printed schedule.
On the same block, the tricycle races ran on Laurel between Franklin and McPherson streets in three divisions for riders up to age 6. Margo Glidewall rode, and so did her shy younger brother.
At Main and Pine, the classic car show drew coupes, trucks and hot rods. Mike and Tammi Mihos have run it for more than 25 years, according to the association.
Late in the morning, the kiddie parade, for ages 12 and under, stepped off at Laurel and Franklin behind a police escort and wound south on Franklin toward Bainbridge Park, where the association offered prizes and photos with Paul and his axe. Many of the marchers were parents pushing strollers or walking beside toddlers in costume.
Walking with the kids was Chloe Martin, a Belle of the Redwoods candidate, in a red satin dress and a contestant sash, with a pouch of raffle tickets at her hip. The contest isn’t a beauty pageant, according to the association. Contestants in period dress sell raffle tickets for the Paul Bunyan Scholarship, which goes to a coast student studying forestry, logging or ecology. The top raffle seller is crowned Sunday at the logging show, and for the first time a Beau will be crowned alongside the Belle.
Handmade birdhouses fill a booth at the Soroptimist International of Fort Bragg craft fair at the CV Starr Community Center in Fort Bragg, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. Everything sold at the fair must be handcrafted, the club said. (Roger Coryell/Bay City News) 
Crocheted animals line a booth at the Soroptimist International of Fort Bragg craft fair at the CV Starr Community Center in Fort Bragg, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (Roger Coryell/Bay City News) 
Handmade rings fill a display case at the Soroptimist International of Fort Bragg craft fair at the CV Starr Community Center in Fort Bragg, Calif., on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (Roger Coryell/Bay City News)
At the CV Starr Community Center on South Lincoln Street, Soroptimist International of Fort Bragg opened its two-day crafts fair, more than 30 booths of handmade jewelry, pottery, quilts, ironwork and soap. Everything sold must be handcrafted, the club said. Booth fees go to Soroptimist college scholarships for women and to Project Sanctuary, which runs domestic violence prevention programs in Mendocino County.
In the CV Starr pool, the log-rolling tournament started at 1 p.m. on a molded red-and-yellow plastic competition log, not a redwood. Young competitors climbed on in pairs and tried to stay up as it spun.
But for log play aficionados, Sunday is the big day. The logging show starts at noon in the Skunk Train lot at the west end of Redwood Avenue, with competitors from Mendocino, Humboldt, Lake and Sonoma counties vying in pole-climbing, axe-throwing, chopping and bucking. Admission is $15, free for 12 and under.
The Belle and Beau coronation is at about 2 p.m. The crafts fair runs again from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Labor Day parade starts at noon Monday at Main and Pine streets, followed by the city barbecue and the Chamber of Commerce pie sale at Bainbridge Park at 1 p.m.