Article: MASCOT MADNESS FROM PAUL BUNYAN TO CHATTY BELLE THE TALKING COW TO THE WORLD'S LARGEST SIX PACK, TOWN MASCOTS ARE A BIG -- WE MEAN BIG -- DEAL.(TRAVEL)

Byline: Beth Gauper St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press

Paul Bunyan has been very good to Bemidji, Minn.

When Cyril and Leonard Dickinson and their Rotary Club cronies built their 18-foot lumberjack for Bemidji's first Winter Carnival in 1937, they had no idea they were creating a national icon.

Their blocky Bunyan landed on the pages of Life magazine and the New York Times, and the 1938 Winter Carnival drew 100,000 people to the town of 7,200. It was a bonanza for Bemidji, mired in the Depression and down to its last sawmill.

Neighboring Blackduck was quick to jump on the bandwagon; civic leaders there built a 16-foot duck and Paul's rifle, ...

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