| A Tale
of Paul As I Remember It Being Told To Me
Rod Nelson of Crosslake, MN
I would like to share a story of Paul Bunyan that was
told to me many years back. Of course I may have forgotten some
details, but hope that the importance of the story is not lost.
Now you see, Paul Bunyan, because he could do his work so quickly
had a great deal of extra time on his hands. Being a
creative sort of guy, he would make up ways to entertain himself.
And with the these forms of relaxation he was easier to get along
with when he had to be with others. One of his efforts resulted
in what he called golfing.
Paul had the entire area to play his game. And of course
the trees were no problem for him, the lakes - with the
exception of one - presented no real challenge. He would
scan the rolling hills and pick out an object somewhere in the distance
to aim for.Paul would stick his little ball holder in the ground
and carefully balance a ball of sorts on it. He would take a few
practice swings and then approach the ball. There was no pressure
or stress on him at this moment since no one else was around. Actually
no one else even played golf. Babe, his Great Blue Ox,
did go with him on many days but in most cases Babe was very supportive
of Paul's efforts.
With a mighty swing he would make that ball sail towards
his goal. Then he picked up his little ball holder and headed off
with Babe to find the ball and continue hitting it towards his goal. Often
times Babe - out of the clear blue sky - would challenge
Paul (in ox talk) to do it in a certain number of swings. Unfortunately
this created a little bit of stress for Paul and he didn't always
make it. But Babe was very careful not to say too much (in ox talk)
if the number of swings was a lot higher than they had set.
Now of course there were those days when Paul would approach the
ball and take his usual swing, but the ball didn't sail as he expected.
Maybe his grip wasn't quite right, or his stance was askew, or his
fingers slipped, or his follow through weakened, or his boot placement
was off, or his eyes looked up, or the wind blew, or even a crow
would caw. This usually made Paul less than a happy lumberjack.
And Babe was again careful not to say anything (in ox talk) although
he would turn and give a little snort just for the heck of it. And
at these times Paul would forget to pick up his little
ball holder as he stamped off to find the ball.
Now it is true that we are lucky that two of these ball holders
(we call them tees) are still standing. Yes, one can
be seen on County Road 11. Ospreys have built a nest
on it and they certainly would resist any effort if you tried to
use it as a golf tee. The other one is on Route 66. It
is rumored that some eagles were considering building a nest on
it but when they heard how high the taxes were in the area, they
decided they had more important ways to spend their eagle money.
Now it is also true that on many of those less than happy days
for Paul, his golfballs would end up in one particular
lake. Somehow when ever he headed in that direction, that lake caused
problems for him. And it was on the days that Babe was with him
that Paul would have Babe surface dive and recover all the lost
balls. That Great Blue Ox became very skilled with his
surface dives and was quite a sight to see. But the important
thing to know is that Paul called this lake Ox's Lake since Babe
would do his thing in it. Today we just say Ox Lake and
leave it at that.
Now the other interesting thing that happened is that as newcomers
came to the area they began to play this golf game. (The
Ojibway and Dakota did not because they had many more
meaningful ways to spend their time.) Do remember that
Paul could have as many goals as he wanted because no one else was
doing this golf thing. But when the newcomers started
they had to restrict themselves to only 18 goals. And they came
up with the idea of little holes as goals. They actually decided
to call them "holes" because it rhymed with Paul's word
of goals. This restriction was also necessary because
they wanted to see how many courses of these 18 goals
or holes they could squeeze into a given area.
And so today we can thank Paul and his Great Blue Ox, Babe, for
this golfing thing that happens around the area. We can
also take a few minutes when going by these old tees of Paul
and ponder how he looked as he placed his little ball holder in
the ground and then took a mighty swing. And of course, as we peek
through the trees hiding Ox Lake, we can only imagine the surface
dives of that Great Blue Ox, Babe.
Now that's the story as it was told to me. I hope I
haven't forgotten any of the important details.
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