Stout Grove - DelNorte County, California
Story & Photos ©2002, Russell Johnson

Paul Bunyan has an axe to grind. Like Rodney Dangerfield, he "don't get no respect." Tearing down a swath of timber in a mighty swing is ecologically unsound and politically incorrect. A giant blue ox ploughing through the wilderness certainly has to be folklore's answer to a SUV. Paul and Babe are also among the most exploited of cultural icons.relegated to cheesy roadside attractions and statues outside of muffler shops.

Poor Paul.

When I was a child, my father took to me to Paul's "sitting down" version in Brainerd, Minnesota. This Bunyan, a Burt Reynolds look-alike, sat schoolboy straight in a north woods diorama of pine trees and happy squirrels. My dad gave some change to a geeky ticket taker who walked behind the statue, positioned himself in a booth (I could see his face through a window), lowered his voice and went "Fie, Fi, Fo ,Fum. What's your name son?" he asked.

Forty some years later I stand in the parking lot of Trees of Mystery near Klamath, in California's far north woods, as two German tourists, doubled over in laughter, photograph each other gazing oxward at the underside of an anatomically correct Babe. At least this Babe didn't suffer the fate of the one of his cousins in Ossineke, Mississippi whose enormous pinecones were shot off by a drunk. Locals say the weapon was used to murder a man the next week.

Paul Bunyan and his ilk don't rule this land anymore. Trees of Mystery, with Paul, Babe and its private forest full of talking and amplified musical redwoods, is just one of this region's throwbacks to a time -- before we all became twitchy -- when drive-through-trees, burlwood carved bears and Sasquatch footprints were exciting stuff. There are a few of those hollowed out trees left, some dying, and the logging industry is staggering after battles with environmentalists over clearcutting. Julia Butterfly Hill, who lived in a redwood tree south of here for two years, made halting the destruction of these ancient redwoods a cause celebre.

To the naked eye, however, this land looks unspoiled. The damage is hidden off the main roads and there is still land, lots of magnificent redwood-covered land.

While Redwood National Park has a mere 110 thousand acres, the Six Rivers National Forest covers nearly 1.1 million acres and includes some 1500 miles of waterway. Ewoks live here for sure (their famous chase scene was filmed near the Smith River) and odds have it that Sasquatch, Hobbits and some other yet to be discovered species are camped out there as well. This is prime territory for hikers, photographers, bikers, birdwatchers, rafters and kayakers.

Elk strut through these fields and forests with regal smugness.

I have two favorite wild spots here: Fern Canyon is south of Klamath in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. You enter the canyon from a beach and walk along an ancient creek bed through a Jurassic Park canyon lined with ferns (yes, parts of that movie were filmed here). You really want to take your time moving through the canyon in a slow amble: listening to the brook burble, breathing the earthy air and slowly scanning the canyon walls.

Fern Canyon - Del Norte County

Stout Grove, which contains a forest right out of Lord of the Rings (not filmed here, but could have been), is located near the Smith River in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. It is a forest of giant (but very stout) redwood trees in a small canyon. It is a place of ear-splitting quiet, which can be downright spooky if you are there alone. It would take a half dozen people to hug one of these trees. Stout's grandest redwood, while not the largest in the forest, is 340 feet high and some 22 feet across. Some of the trees here are as much as 2000 years old. If we were to pay this tree the US Federal minimum wage of $5.15/hour, its actuarial value would be more than $90.2 million dollars.certainly an economic argument for not chopping it down. I have been there twice. The first time it was so quiet that a breaking twig sounded like a falling tree. The second time, two kids incessantly nagged their mother. Their shouts echoed through the canyon. "I want to go to Trees of Mystery," they screamed. Nya nya nya.over and over again. After lots of shushing, Mom finally gave in and left me and the rest of us weary seekers of Zen in almost eerie silence.

Once you get past the kitsch, Trees of Mystery is a well worth a stop for adults as well as kids. It is a family owned enterprise run by a nice fellow named John Thompson. John's mother Marylee collected Native American artifacts for 40 years. They are displayed at the "The End of the Trail Museum" attached to the gift shop. It is a real surprise, a world-class private museum with hundreds of artifacts tightly packed in small display cases. If afforded their due in a public museum, I am sure they would occupy an entire wing.

The people of California's Del Norte and Humboldt counties are caught in the same economic dilemma as many countries. They are rich in exhaustible natural wonders in a world economy that puts a premium on adding value with finished goods and services, that is dependent on consumption and growth and where power lies in the big cities. Wild places don't fit the mold. There is some logging here, fisheries, a bit of agriculture (including marijuana) and tourism. Tourism done right -- respecting the natural environment that is THE REASON that tourists visit here -- cannot solve the economic woes of the region, but it can help.

It is encouraging to see that that the natural heritage of the region is now less endangered than it was in the past, that many of old redwoods left will not become decks and fenceposts and that they are no longer exploited as curiosities in a freakshow. But poor Paul Bunyan, he was innocent enough in his day. He just didn't know what the hell he was doing.