Twenty-Foot Lumberjack

Connections

• One of Cassidy's known companions

Context

This must be a reference to one of the most well-known figures American tall tales, Paul Bunyan. He is always described to be a very large man who literally shaped the landscape of the Midwest, to say nothing of his contribution to the lumberjack industry at the time. He is also said to have a pet ox named Babe the Blue Ox. The earliest known recorded reference to Paul Bunyan is in a 1904 editorial in the Duluth News Tribune, a newspaper based in Minnesota.

Paul's noted accomplishments (as told in many children's books and TV shows) include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Getting lost in a Minnesota blizzard, creating the state's 10,000 lakes with his footprints
• Carving out the Grand Canyon by dragging his axe behind him
• Creating Mount Hood by filling his campfire with stones
• Digging out the Missouri River
• Building Pikes Peak

These accomplishments stretch even into the west coast, so it would be no surprise that Cassidy would run into Paul and Babe as she's been at the very least to the areas between Utah and the Nebraska Territory.