Bunyan's Ants - [Fearsome Critters]

 'Paul's Trained Ants' - [Fearsome Critters] - latin name: Camponotus gigans. - aka "Uncles", "Carpenter-Ants" "Timber-Ants"' “mammoth ants”

• About this Critter: Inspired by his catastrophic "success" with interbreeding Giant Bees and Mosquitoes Ol'Paul suddenly found himself short on help, so, he embiggened & trained some timber ants to help haul his logs and do all manner of grunt work. These gigantic, 6ft tall 200pound 'carpenters' did the work of at least 5 ordinary men and worked day and night. - Best of all, They worked for snuff! – The ants quickly became nicotine addicts and worked day and night without any complaint (so long as they got their fix.) Come the winter, Paul had them fitted with warm fur-lined mackinaws to keep them from hibernating. 

• History: Paul Bunyans trained ants where earliest mentioned in an illustration included in "Paul Bunyan and His Big Blue Ox - W. B. Laughead" 6th edition, first Published in January of 1934. - An updated version of "The Marvellous Exploits of Paul Bunyan" from 1914s Red-River Lumber Pamphlet. - Laughead's 1934 entry about them goes as follows:

"Paul Bunyan's Trained Ants are proving so successful that they may replace donkeys and tractors on the rugged slopes of the Sierras. Inspired by his success with Bees and Mosquitoes, Paul has developed a breed of Ants that stand six feet tall and weigh 200 pounds.

To overcome their habit of hibernating all Winter, Paul supplied the Ants with Mackinaws made with three pairs of sleeves or legs. They eat nothing but Copenhagen Snuff. The Ants (or Uncles as they prefer to be called) can run to the Westwood shops with a damaged locomotive quicker than the Wrecking Crew can come out. They do not patronize bootleggers or require time off to fix their automobiles."

[image from a 1939 (& final edition) of the booklet - it should be noted that this yarn & illustration was not present in earlier versions of the book, I have yet to find this version available online.] 

The Story of the worker ants went on to be a part of the Paul Bunyan trail, the trained ants also featured as part of a Minnesota Bunyan Parade float in 1938 too! (sadly there are no pictures which i can find though The float was Apparently by the local Philomathean society.)

"Copenhagan Snuff" is of course a brand of chewing tobacco, which would have been quite popular with workers back then. (I'm unsure if there's any specific reason why they decided to give product placement to Copenhagan? perhaps it was just the most popular brand at the time or perhaps the red river lumber company had deal with them? either way, Later, versions of the yarn nix the product placement, Changing it to the 'finest sweedish snuff', such as the one included on The Paul bunyan trail website goes as follows...

"When Paul was short of help, he trained some enormous ants to do all kinds of logging work. They weighed over 2,000 pounds and ate nothing but the best imported Swedish snuff. The ants did the work of 50 ordinary men. In the winter, Paul had them fitted with warm mackinaws to keep them from hibernating."

[Above illustration by Homer Dimmick, the quote is likely from his 1969 comic "Paul Bunyan the Giant Lumberjack"]

The gradual change from 5->50 men & 200->2000 pounds feels like decent example of an embellishment becoming larger or more exaggerated over time, which is a reason why "tall tales" where called what they where. - Below are some earlier printed postcards which include the anthromorphic ants & the former sizing. 

[above, a 1939 postcard featuring the ants. ]

[another postcard by the Minnesota Service News Agency c1940s ]

"Mackinaws" are of course the iconic plaid jackets which lumbermen are known to wear. Not much else to say about this one, but bunyan bugs where also a thing.

Ol' Pauls 'Embiggening' - It's Notably a regular magical trait of Bunyan to cause ordinary wildlife to grow to tremendous sizes. - (whether he wants them to or not) sometimes its a gradual thing over time, Othertimes he does it on purpose. - Why exactly this is, is seemingly unknown and for the most part is unexplored in the early lore. - [To my knowledge why this happens is never directly addressed.] - I'd suppose its just part of being in the presence of a "Man who was larger than life."  - I digress, the reasoning as to why doesn't matter. -- There are several cases of ordinary animals that Paul own or comes in contact with turning titanous, such as Babe the Big Blue Ox, his hunting dog Sport, not to mention the aforementioned Wild Bees, Squirrels, Mosquitoes, Bedbugs and Ants, each which causing their own set of problems (or benefits) for the local populace. Often times the story ends with "...I've never seen one quite so big since." implying that after Paul left the strange giant animals stopped appearing as well... in this case, if i had to place my bets, i'd bet it was the 100% chewing tobbacco diet that did them in.

[Art sticker & bio by @samkalensky part of my Fearsome Critters and American Folklore collection of stickers follow for more art by me and consider supporting via patreon.com/samkalensky if you like these posts!]