Right here, before there was a dam, me and the lumberjacks would float logs down the Pine River from Norway Lake, just a little ways upstream. There was a lot of good timber up there, some say the biggest stand of white pine in the whole Northwest! But, every time we floated those logs down this very river, we had to put up with the GIANT Ducks.
So here’s what we did.
We put one of my seven axmen, ol’ Bald Elmer, on the first log and sent him down the river, the rest of the crew following right behind on the log jam. Baldy kept his eye peeled, and every time he saw one’a those big giant ducks, he’d holler “DUCK!”, and the rest of the crew hit the deck.
Oh, those ducks were still a predicament, but that year we only had one guy jump into the river – and that’s cause he couldn’t hear too good.
-Paul L. Bunyan
Crowds cheer as Paul Bunyan’s camp tailor and favorite chore boy wins the weekly summer Duck Races in Pine River, MN.
Over the seasons the big timber was hauled out and moved on. Then some engineers put in a dam, and those giant ducks quit coming this far north.
Come to Pine River where your chances of being chased into the river by a giant duck are slim-to-none. But you can swim, fish, camp and have a good ol’ time!
