Paul Bunyan

Now, there were rails and tunnels, and roadbeds
But what about crossties?
Why, our railroads need the lumber of a thousand great forests!
You show me the giant who's gonna cut that timber

Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan
There ain't nobody who can
Hold a candle or an axe handle to Paul, the lumberman

Paul Bunyan lived so long ago
That you may wonder how I know
A lumberjack once told me so
Way up in Minnesota

This Earth began to rock, one morning
And all the folks knew Paul was born
Ships were a-wrecked, pourin' 'round the horn
In Southern Minnesota

I'll tell you how he came to be
The son of a great, wide oak was he
His father was a redwood tree
From a home in California
That's Western Minnesota

Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan
There ain't nobody who can
Hold a candle or an axe handle to Paul, the lumberman

Paul Bunyan grew so very tall
He could not stand up straight at all
They said you'll have to leave St. Paul
And maybe Minnesota

He laughed and the Earth shook, far and wide
And once, they say Paul Bunyan cried
And hundreds drowned in the tide
That flooded Minnesota

So off to the piny woods, he went
Where he built a camp of great extent
And with his shirt, he pitched a tent
That covered Minnesota

Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan
There ain't nobody who can
Hold a candle or an axe handle to Paul, the lumberman

One day, when Paul was rambling 'round
He dug a river in solid ground
To float his giant timber down
To the Gulf of Minnesota

Paul Bunyan had a great, blue ox
Its link was a hundred city blocks
And when it walked, he stopped the clocks
In all of Minnesota

Paul Bunyan's ox was quite well-known
Its weight was a hundred million stone
They called him fake 'cause he weren't half-grown
And he lived in Minnesota

Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan
There ain't nobody who can
Hold a candle or an axe handle to Paul, the lumberman

He took in his order, in his hand
And led his finger through the sand
He made a canyon and called it grand
In Southwest Minnesota

To list his great deeds, one by one
If I were to mention all he's done
In a hundred years, I'd have just begun
To talk about Paul Bunyan

And when he died, he died so hard
He shook the ground in my backyard
Every minstrel and every bard
Grew soft about Paul Bunyan
And also, Minnesota

Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan
There ain't nobody who can
Hold a candle or an axe handle to Paul, the lumberman

Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan
I'll tell you if I can
In all this nation, and the whole Creation
He's a giant of a lumberman, hey!