Environment | Page 7

View of Mississippi River from Cherokee Heights, 1925

View of Mississippi River from Cherokee Heights tourist camp, St. Paul, 1925. Photograph by Charles P. Gibson.

Cherokee Heights tourist camp panorama, ca. 1925

Cherokee Heights (St. Paul) tourist camp panorama, ca. 1925.

Campers at Cherokee Tourist Camp, 1923

Campers at Cherokee Tourist Camp, 1923. Photograph by the St. Paul Daily News.

Sign at the entrance of Cherokee Regional Park

Sign at the entrance of Cherokee Regional Park in St. Paul, October 21, 2023. Photograph by Emily Shepard. CC BY-NC 4.0

Rochester State Hospital grounds

Rochester State Hospital grounds, 1890s.

Paul Bunyan (folklore character)

The giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan—bearded, ax in hand, clad in red flannel and work boots—has come to represent Minnesota’s Northwoods. Folklore credits him and his sidekick, Babe the Blue Ox, with creating the Mississippi River and the Grand Canyon. But his legacy is complicated. While Paul Bunyan myths celebrate Minnesota, they also leave out the facts of the state’s logging history, which led to deforestation and the displacement of Native American histories, places, and people.