Paul Bunyan Statue in Bangor

Discover

Bangor's Paul Bunyan statue gives a fictional lumberjack an unmistakable physical presence outside the Cross Insurance Center. Plan a pedestrian stop from an authorized approach, leaving the vehicle in lawful parking before looking for a photograph. A large figure beside a busy road can tempt a hurried stop, but the image is not worth obstructing traffic. Once you are settled, compare the scale of the character with the ordinary surroundings rather than trying to make the city disappear from every frame.

The Maine Atlas Project explains why the town chose this figure for its 125th-anniversary celebration in 1959. Bunyan belonged to lumber-camp tall tales that grew into a wider popular story through advertising. His impossible feats are folklore, not evidence of a real giant who shaped Maine's rivers and hills. That distinction leaves plenty to enjoy: a city associated with the timber trade chose a deliberately outsized character to make its past visible. The statue can invite a conversation about how work becomes a story and how a story becomes a civic emblem.

The Bangor Public Library's account brings the project back to a human scale. Teacher Connie Bronson suggested the statue, and local artist J. Normand Martin shaped a small clay model at his kitchen table. A New York fabrication company then turned the idea into the much larger outdoor figure. Follow that change in scale in your imagination, from something an artist could hold to something a visitor must look up at. The process involved fundraising and coordination as well as sculpting. A spectacular roadside landmark began with fairly ordinary forms of community effort.

The Smithsonian's outdoor-sculpture inventory offers a vocabulary for looking at the result. It describes a painted fiberglass figure supported by a steel armature, wearing a belted checked jacket and boots, with an axe and a peavey. The latter is a lumberman's lever rather than a second axe. Compare the two tools and the different directions they give the composition. These are elements of a sculptural portrait of an occupation, not instructions for handling logging equipment. The large smile and exaggerated scale belong to a character built for storytelling.

Not every visitor understands the size from a passing car. In a June 2021 Tripadvisor account, DLP wrote that getting out and standing nearby made the figure's scale much more apparent. The reviewer enjoyed the connection with Bangor's lumbering past. That is one person's response, useful for setting a modest expectation rather than suggesting the stop needs a long itinerary. Give yourself time to look after the first photograph, and decide whether the tool, the expression or the scale supplies the detail that makes it memorable.

For a pair of photographs, begin with the complete figure and enough ground to make the scale intelligible. Then choose a tighter view of the tools from the same safe public area, without climbing the base or asking a companion to stand in traffic. The familiar plaid-clad figure becomes more interesting when the picture retains a sense of where it lives. Bangor's Paul Bunyan joins a fictional biography to actual artistic labor, community organizing and the city's memory of timber work. Enjoy the exaggeration while keeping those real people in the story.

Fun facts

1. J. Normand Martin developed the statue from a small clay model.
2. The figure carries an axe and a peavey, a lumberman’s lever.
3. The city chose Bunyan for its 125th-anniversary celebration.

Read the official sources →

Visitor perspectives

1. DLP’s June 2021 Tripadvisor account found the statue’s size more striking after getting out of the car, and enjoyed its reminder of Bangor’s lumbering past.

Capture

1. Frame the complete figure with some ground for scale, then study the tools from a safe public position without climbing or blocking traffic.

Social

Bangor gives a fictional lumberjack a very visible place in the city.

Paul Bunyan’s impossible achievements belong to folklore.

A small clay model preceded the full-size outdoor figure.

Community fundraising and fabrication helped make the landmark.

The figure carries two different logging tools, an axe and a peavey.

One 2021 visitor found the scale more apparent after leaving the car.

Plan the parking before the photograph.

How does a familiar tall tale change when you meet it at street level?

Hashtags

1. #Cre8Travel
2. #Maine
3. #Bangor
4. #PaulBunyan
5. #PublicArt

Sources & visitor information

• www.crossinsurancecenter.com
• www.maine.gov
• bangorpubliclibrary.org
• siris-artinventories.si.edu
• www.tripadvisor.com