Blue Mountain Blues

One day, Paul Bunyan and his great blue ox Babe came upon the town named Melancholy. Why do you call your town Melancholy? he asked the residents.

Because we are sad, they replied. We are in this beautiful valley but we have no river. We must walk miles each day to get water.

Paul Bunyan was always an agreeable sort and eager to help anyone so he led his great ox to a river ten miles away. He tied the mouth of the river to Babe's yoke and together they labored all day to pull that river into the valley so now it ran right past the town.

You are most welcome, he told them when they thanked him. If there is anything more I can do for you, I certainly will try.

We could use the wood from that far forest so we could build and heat our homes, they told him. It is too far away and too tiring for us to do it.

It wasn't for Paul Bunyan. The following morning, he took his great ax and ox and went to that forest and chopped down every tree, then loaded the logs on a great wagon so Babe could pull the lumber into the town. Now you'll have all the lumber you'll ever need, he told them. If there's nothing more, Babe and I shall be on our way.

We would like to farm that land, they told him. But there are so many tree stumps that it would take us years to clear them so we can use that land.

Paul Bunyan was always eager to grant a favor so he and Babe spent the next day pulling those stumps out of the ground so the good folk of Melancholy could plant their fields. He and Babe were exhausted but smiling when they returned to the town that evening. I have removed the stumps, he told them. Now you should be able to plant your fields and enjoy your crops. Unless you still need us, Babe and I shall say goodbye.

Now that there is no more forest, the sun beats down on us unmercifully, they told him. We need mountains to give us shade from the burning heat.

Paul Bunyon never saw a problem he couldn't solve. Then Babe and I shall build you one, he told them. With that he and Babe went to work.

True to his word, there were two mountains rising high in the east when he returned to Melancholy the next morning. Paul Bunyan, you have saved our town, the good folk of Melancholy told him. In your honor we will call them the Bunyan Mountains.

Thank you but no, Paul Bunyan told them. Call them the Blue Mountains because Babe did all the work. And with that, he and Babe walked out of the valley never to return.

So the grateful people of Melancholy did indeed call them the Blue Mountains. But it wasn't until more than a week later, when the wind came from the east, that they learned how Paul and his great ox had built those mountains.