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The United States has many legends dating from the 1800s, when the country was expanding westward and people were clearing the land for farming. This folklore includes a number of "tall tales"—humorous stories about larger-than-life characters who possessed unusual strength or cleverness and performed extraordinary feats. Some of the best-known tall tales center on a backwoods lumberjack named Paul Bunyan.

Paul's Life and Adventures. Paul Bunyan, it was said, was born in Maine. His most notable feature was his immense size and the strength that accompanied it. As a baby, he destroyed acres of forest simply by rolling around in his sleep. Bunyan did everything more intensely than normal people. He slept so soundly, for example, that it once took seven hours' worth of cannon shots from the British navy to wake him.

Paul Bunyan logged throughout the upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, and he left his mark...