About Paul Bunyan Statue
Bangor marked its 125th anniversary by building a man taller than many houses. The city’s Paul Bunyan statue rises 31 feet above Main Street in a red plaid shirt, holding an axe and peavey while staring out with the fixed confidence of someone who could clear an entire forest before lunch.
The statue was created in 1959 as a monument to Bangor’s lumber history and to the giant lumberjack of American tall tales. During the nineteenth century, Bangor was a major lumber center, so the fictional woodsman offered the city an appropriately oversized mascot. A local artist made the model, and the finished figure was constructed with a steel frame and fiberglass exterior.
Bunyan weighs about 3,700 pounds, but the strangest part may be underneath him. His base contains a time capsule filled with items from Bangor’s 125th-anniversary celebration. The plan is to keep it sealed until the city’s 250th anniversary in 2084. That means generations of visitors get to stand beside a gigantic fake lumberjack who is also guarding a box they are not allowed to open.
The statue stands outdoors and can be viewed without entering a museum or buying a ticket. It is more than a generic big roadside figure because Bangor built it directly out of its own lumber identity, then added a century-spanning secret under the pedestal. Maine already has plenty of trees. Apparently Bangor decided what it needed was a 31-foot man capable of chopping them down.