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When Kansas Wasn't Flat

© Mary Trotter Kion

Before we begin this tale of Kansas before it was flattened out, as it is today, there are two things you must realize. The first is the fact that loggers have never been known to lie--and that’s the truth. The second thing is that, at one time or the other, Paul Bunyon was a Kansas farmer. Of course it couldn’t have been much of a farm since Kansas, at that time, was covered with tall mountains that were overgrown with thousands of trees just waiting to be logged.

Back in those days Paul didn’t have a logging crew yet. What he did have was an ox called Babe. Paul and Babe got together the Winter of the Blue Snow when Babe had gotten himself stuck in one big blue snowdrift. By the time Paul got Babe out of that mountain of snow that poor ox was the prettiest shade of shivering blue you’ve ever seen. From then on, the two of them just naturally threw in together—and they both grew.

By the time Babe was full grown he was so long that Paul could stand in front of that ox and he couldn’t see what was going on at that critter’s hind end unless he used the telescope he’d just invented. And that was how Paul and Babe the Blue Ox came to mosey on over to the United States.

It seems that one day Babe took to munching clover and munched the front end of him self right on over to America. So there was Paul standing at the ox’s rear and still in Canada. Paul got curious as to what Babe found so tasty so he packed his duffel and set off walking. After the better part of a week Paul reached Babe’s front end and he was so delighted at the pretty scenery in America he and Babe just kept exploring until they discovered Kansas.

The only problem now was that Paul wanted to see the rest of the Great Plains but all those Kansas mountains and trees were in the way. It was so crowded there wasn’t even room for Indians or buffalo. There was only one thing to do and that was to commence logging those trees till he could see across the plains. After a while Paul had rounded up a logging crew to help and started his Kansas farm to feed them.

Now Paul Bunyon had his own particular method of logging and getting all those downed trees to the river for transport. First off, Paul and his crew would chop down a section of timber. But in stead of going to all the work of hauling the logs to which ever river was the closest he’d leave them lying right were they were. Now it was Babe’s turn to go into action.