Paul Bunyan Furtaw Field

Oscoda's Paul Bunyan began life as a Detroit parade figure. Michigan Blue magazine says the figure was made of papier-mâché for J.L. Hudson of Detroit and used in a Thanksgiving Day parade; after the 1971 parade it was bought for $50 and moved to Oscoda. The Oscoda Press reported in 2023 that Oscoda Township acquired it in 1971. In 1983 it was restored, covered in fiberglass and repainted, and it now stands at Furtaw Field, which Michigan Blue places two blocks north of the centre of town on US-23. Michigan Blue and, in 2025, Northern Michigan History both give its height as 13 feet 4 inches. Why Oscoda? On 6 November 2006 Michigan Blue reports that the State of Michigan designated the town the 'true birthplace of the legend of Paul Bunyan as first set in ink by James MacGillivray'. MacGillivray's story 'Round River' appeared in the Oscoda Press on 10 August 1906, based, Michigan Blue says, on the life of Fabian Fournier, a French Canadian who worked in northern Michigan logging camps after the Civil War. MacGillivray revised it for the Detroit News Tribune in 1910. Other states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Maine, have made their own claims on Bunyan, according to Northern Michigan History. In February 2023 the statue was taken away for repair and repainting, and the Oscoda Press said it was expected back within weeks; the 2025 Northern Michigan History article places it at Furtaw Field. A Babe the Blue Ox made by artist Ann Rataj was added in 2023. Oscoda's tourism site calls Paul Bunyan Days an annual tradition of more than 45 years, held at Furtaw Field each mid-September.