Brainerd, Minnesota -
False "Fargo" Movie Bunyan

While it is true that the majority of the film was made in Minneapolis/St. Paul, it wasn't ALL filmed there. The "barren snow covered wasteland" scenes, where you see nothing but road and snow, were actually filmed north of Grand Forks, ND. The Paul Bunyan statue was actually constructed for the movie and placed on the outskirts of a small North Dakota town called Hensel. I think Hensel has about 100 people, tops. The Cohen brothers had to film the snow scenes in northern North Dakota because an unusually warm winter/spring caused the southern parts of North Dakota and Minnesota to be completely out of snow. There were a lot of people from the Grand Forks area that auditioned to be extras for the movie. [Carol Jo Steffen, 04/22/1998]

[RA: According to one tipster, the sinister Paul Bunyan featured in "Fargo" was created specifically for the movie by sculptor Beth Edelstein, who was hired by the Coen brothers.]

The Paul statue in the movie was created for the movie. It never stood in Brainerd. NONE of the film was filmed in or near Brainerd or Fargo. All exteriors will filmed in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I live about two blocks from the "King of Clubs" bar where the murder plot was hatched. It is on Central avenue in northeast Minneapolis. It is not in Fargo, but is very reminiscent of many bars on NP Avenue in Fargo, the ass-end of that town. I went to college in Fargo with Kris Rudrud, the murder/kidnapping victim. Her name is pronounced "RUHD-rood" and is not an uncommon name in the area. [ Jon_Peterson, 03/10/1998]

I fell off my theatre seat when I saw the Paul Bunyan statue while watching FARGO, but several calls and one letter later I now believe the movie producers created the P.B. statue specifically as a "set piece." It does not exist in Brainerd, and to the knowedge of the Brainerd Visitor and Convention Bureau chicks, it was dismantled. There are gobs of chainsaw bunyan oriented statues in Brainerd, but the two good ones are the P.B. sitting in an alcove who says your name, and then across the street the Babe statue at the P.B. Motel. [Bob Tubbs-Avalon, 05/12/1997]