History

Rose Brewer (Blood) and her first husband, Art Blood, lived in Akeley for several years when they developed the idea of Paul Bunyan Days in 1955 to attract tourists to the northern Minnesota town. Brewer' s son Dennis Blood, of North St. Paul, said there was little interest in the idea at the time. The events was bolstered by a group of construction workers in town at the time who helped build the big baby cradle that would be joined by an equally large kneeling Bunyan statue.

"They couldn't have imagined it would evolve the way it did," the son said.