Tall Tales

Tall Tales

A tall tale is a story that has these features:

A larger-than-life, or superhuman, main character with a specific job.

A problem that is solved in a funny way.

Exaggerated details that describe things as greater than they really are.

Characters who use everyday language.

Settlers who made their homes in the American wilderness first told tall tales. In those days, before TV and movies, people depended on storytelling for entertainment. After a long day's work, people gathered to tell each other funny tales.

Each group of workers-loggers, cowboys, railroad and steel workers-had its own tall-tale hero. Having a superhuman hero with the same job somehow made their lives easier. Perhaps it gave them strength or courage to do their difficult and dangerous work.

Learn about these famous Tall Tale Characters:

Paul Bunyan Write your own Tall Tale

Paul Bunyan

There have been few characters of American folklore with the stature of Paul Bunyan. This legendary hero of lumberjacks throughout American possessed strength, speed, and skill that matched the vastness of North American.

According to legend, Paul Bunyan and his giant blue ox, Babe, left many a mark on the landscape, receiving credit for creating Puget Sound, the Grand Canyon, and the Black Hills, among others.

Some folklore experts have credited the French-Canadians for starting the tales. Others attribute the tales to a Western logging company during the early 20th century. Still others consider it a European import.

All agree, however, that Bunyan legend probably grew as the tales about him grew, bringing a new meaning to the term "tall story." Stories about Bunyan and Babe first circulated through the logging camps of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, where loggers first heard and then retold the fables, adding local or personal embellishments.

Read the tale of Paul Bunyan

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Johnny Appleseed

For forty-nine years, John Chapman ("Johnny Appleseed") roamed the American wilderness, devotedly planting apple trees. The reason for John's mission is unknown, although it's said he dreamed of a land covered with blossoming apple trees; of a land where no one went hungry because apples were plentiful.

John's gentleness and courage were legendary even in his own time. He walked alone in the wilderness, without gun or knife. He chopped down no trees, and killed no animals. He was respected and appreciated by the Native American tribes and the new settlers alike.

John lived very simply. He slept outdoors, walked barefoot and ate berries. He made his clothes from sacks and wore a tin pot for a hat (and to cook with). John made his drinking water in winter by melting snow with his feet. Even the people of his time were amazed at his endurance.

Read the tale of Johnny Appleseed

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Pecos Bill

Pecos Bill was a legendary cowboy folk hero. According to legend, coyotes raised Pecos Bill after he fell from his parent's wagon. It was during his early years with the coyotes, that Pecos Bill befriended wild animals.

His relationships with those animals carried into adult life. He chose riding a mountain lion instead of a horse. When he did change mounts, Bill naturally selected a horse no one else could ride and named him Widow Maker. When it came to weapons, he nearly always chose a whip - not made of braided rawhide, but a live rattlesnake.

The only woman to catch Bill's fancy was Slue-Foot Sue, whom he met as she rode a catfish the size of a whale down the Rio Grande. This was; of course, before Pecos Bill drained the Rio Grande to water his ranch during and enduring drought.

Listen to a song telling the tale of Pecos Bill

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John Henry

The legend of John Henry came about during the railroad boom era of the early 1800s. John Henry, according to legend, "was a steel-driving African-American man," who could hammer railroad spikes faster than anyone, and loved it. This Paul Bunyan-like character was born full-sized (over eight feet tall!) and went to work on the railroad when he was only three weeks old. Eventually, John Henry is challenged to compete against a steel-driving machine, to see who is better, man or machine... John Henry wins, but collapses, dead, at the finish line. John Henry "didn't really die... just stopped livin' in his Mammy's shack, and started livin' in the hearts of men, forever and a day." The point is, as John says, a man can do anything if he puts his mind to it.

View a short movie “John Henry vs. the Steel-Driving Machine”

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Tony Beaver

Listen to Phil Wyatt read the story as you follow the text.

West Virginia's state history is filled with heroes. One of the biggest is Tony Beaver. The western part of Virginia was so rugged and hilly that it could be settled by only the hardiest people, people who came to be called Mountaineers.

Among these hardy pioneers was a most unusual family, the Beavers. Paw and Maw Beaver and the three little Beavers, Betsey, Tony, and Molly, built a log cabin and settled on top of one of the wooded hills in the Appalachian Mountains.

As Tony grew up, he learned all the important skills that Paw could teach him--things like hunting and shooting. One day Tony was walking in the woods, and his little sister Molly was tagging along. He and Molly found a trickling stream, no bigger than a pencil, and followed it just to see where it went. It followed a rugged, twisting course till it turned into a wide river. When Molly remarked that the river snaked around, twisting and turning just like an eel, Tony dubbed it the Eel River and named himself the owner!

All of the Beaver younguns were big and healthy, but Tony was growing up extra big, and Maw finally told him it was time for him to go out on his own. So Tony set out, taking his big strides that just went from one mountaintop to the next. In his travels he came to Turtle Cove just while Big Bill Simpson was sponsoring a woodchopping contest; Big Bill was promising a part of his lumbering business to anyone who could out chop him.

Tony had chopped down trees for his Paw, but he'd never thought about seeing how fast he could chop; but the contest sounded interesting, so Tony told Big Bill he'd like to try.

On the ready signal, Tony brought his ax down so hard that it just broke off that big hickory tree as if it were a matchstick. And that was the way Tony got into the lumbering business.

Tony perfected his swing so that he could cut down two trees with each swing--one on the back swing and one on the down swing! When he got bored with that, he went to pulling the trees out by the roots.

In West Virginia Tony Beaver became just as famous a woodsman as his cousin Paul Bunyan did up North. He started his own lumber business on the Eel River. And just like Paul had Babe the Blue Ox for help, Tony had two oxen named Hannibal and Goliath.

One time--just for a little excitement--Tony invited his cousin Paul to come down to West Virginia for a skating contest. They both wrapped sides of bacon around their skates and greased the griddle for Grandma's famous pancakes. (Tony won that race.)

In the years of his long and productive life, Tony had many adventures. And even now, Tony Beaver is still talked about in the hills of West Virginia.

Based on the stories in The Remarkable History of Tony Beaver, West Virginian, by Mary E. Cober (New York: David McKay, 1953)

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Write your own Tall Tale

The KEY to a tall tale is EXAGGERATION.

Your first step is to choose a tall tale hero.

Remember, the key is to EXAGGERATE your hero's characteristics. Make him or her bigger or stronger or faster or smarter than anyone else!

Now you need an adventure for your tall tale hero. Once again, the key is to EXAGGERATE. The main event of a tall tale is not something that can happen in real life.

Highlight the story pattern below, copy and paste on a Microsoft Word document.

Use the story pattern to help in writing your own Tall Tale.

___________________was the ________________________________

(Name of tall tale hero) (describing words like: toughest, smartest)

man/woman in the state of ______________________ . Everyone for

(state name)

miles around knew ______________________ and loved to tell and

(hero's name)

retell of his/her amazing feats. Now one day _____________________

(hero's name)

went to visit __________________ . __________________ had been

(2^nd character's name) (2^nd character's name)