4-26-19

A famous tourist t/r/a/p/ stop on US 101 in the coast redwood country of far northern California, about 35 miles from the Oregon line. It features gigantic statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox (leftmost inset), a copy of "End of the Trail" (next inset to right), a Trail of Tall Tales (middle inset) featuring chainsaw sculptures (rightmost insets), and (of course!) a gigantic gift shop filled with all manner of kitsch (straight ahead). There's also a motel and restaurant. In fairness, it's not _all_ kitsch--there's a nice interpretive trail among the tall coast redwoods ( Sequoia sempervirens ), as well as a short tramway to the ridge above the site, from which you can hike down if you want (I did). I'll post on them Real Soon Now. Funny, this trip was in spring 2019, but already seems much longer ago--what The Year of Covid has done!

A copy of James Earle Fraser's End of the Trail sculpture on display at the Trees of Mystery, California. Here's the Wikipedia write-up on the original: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_the_Trail_(Fraser) This is one sculpture that _isn't_ kitsch!

At the Trees of Mystery tourist t/r/a/p/ attraction just off US 101, in the coast redwood country of far northern California. Paul Bunyan and Babe were figures in (allegedly) traditional folklore in timber country--Bunyan was a lumberjack who carried out all sort of improbable feats with his trusty ox, sort of like the Labors of Hercules in the New World. US schoolchildren read about his exploits, and I really don't know how many of the tall tales are really traditional, and how many are just later embellishments. In either case I'm sure they're seriously bowdlerized! And on that latter note, Babe is--ahem--anatomically complete, which was a source of mirth to the visiting school groups I saw while there. My wife the veterinarian tells me that's incorrect, however, because technically an ox is a steer used as a beast of burden!