Now there's a Bright idea!

Now there's a Bright idea!. . , The Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway Association thanks the MN Dept. of Natural Resources for their support and sponsorship of this site.,

You see that big fire tower over there? Well, there's a pretty good story behind how it got there.

, Every lumberjack worth his chewin' tobacky knows that winter is the best time to chop down trees. They're a lot easier to saw when the sap is frozen, and doesn't get all gooey and make the blade stick. Plus, the snow is nice and slippery, so the logs slide down to the lake like a moustache comb dipped in bacon grease, and you can float 'em out in the spring., Anyhow, the nights get awful long up here in the north country, and it's tough to get in a full day's work before the sun goes down. So one evening were were all sittin' around the campfire, talkin' about how we wished we had more time for loggin', and Ole the blacksmith was lightin' his pipe with a burning twig. Well, the twig lit up Ole's plug-ugly face like it was daytime., That's when the idea hit me. I told Ole to start blacksmithin' out some iron the very next day, and start building a tower up on top of that hill. Told him to make it 100 feet high, and seven feet square on top. Babe and I would be back in a week., The next mornin', Babe and I strolled over to northern Wisconsin, where the giant bees lived. That's a whole 'nother tale, but to make a long story short, those giant bees helped me roll up a ball of bee's wax so big I needed Babe to drag it all the way back to Minnesota. When we got back, there was the tower, all ready to go., Well, we strung a rope right through the middle of that big ball of bee's wax, and I stuck it up on top of that tower. Come nightfall, I fired up the rope, and that giant candle lit up the woods so good we could lumberjack all night long. These days, when you look around the north woods, you can see quite a few of these "Fire Towers"... and now you know how they got there., Of course once we got done loggin', we just left 'em there so somebody else could use 'em. The DNR thought they'd work pretty good for keepin' an eye out for forest fires, and since they were fire towers already, it was perfect. And that's just what they did., This one's been here since 1934. A guy named Art Savage was the first fire ranger, and you can still see the foundation of the cabin at the base of the tower, where he lived with his family. In '58, there was a fire over by Island Lake, but the ranger didn't see it because of a blind spot., Another time a bear named Sassy climbed up the tower to take a peek. Scared the socks off the ranger the next morning, and it took a whole bag of marshmallows to get her outa there... the bear, not the ranger., So now you know, and there you go. Why not hike on up there and take a look., Go ahead and Explore the Lore!, Babe and I'll be seeing you at the next stop with more tall tales to tell!