World's Largest Talking Paul Bunyan

Paul Bunyan does not wait for a cue: the 26-foot animated lumberjack at Paul Bunyan Land calls children by name, and the Brainerd Dispatch described in 2025 how their mouths fall open when that low voice speaks. According to the Dispatch, the figure was the main attraction at the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949 before two Brainerd businessmen bought it and moved it to the first Paul Bunyan Land at the junction of highways 371 and 210 in Baxter, where it drew visitors from 1950. The park’s own website says Paul has greeted youngsters by name since 1954.

When the Baxter park was sold in 2003, the Dispatch reported, its pieces were close to being split up. A pair of siblings bought it instead and moved Paul, his blue ox Babe and the rides to their family’s land east of Brainerd, joining them with This Old Farm, a pioneer village of antique buildings. The park reopened on Memorial Day weekend 2004, the Dispatch said, without missing a season, and Babe stands at the entrance.