Paul Bunyan Historical Museum

Akeley, Minnesota

Despite its name, this museum is not exclusively devoted to the folklore giant, Paul Bunyan. There are a few Bunyan figurines and bobbleheads, a yellowed press clipping describing the construction of the towering kneeling Bunyan statue out front, and a well-worn guestbook from the first Paul Bunyan Days festival held in Akeley in 1949.

Important news and swag at the Paul Bunyan Historical Museum.

The big lumberjack is almost overshadowed by exhibits more typical of small town Minnesota museums, such as old washboards and buckets, snowshoes, and a framed photo of a guy named Olof Skoog.

Exhibits in the historic logging town reveal that the school sports teams of Akeley were not named the Bunyans or the Lumberjacks, but the Akeley Anglers. Somewhat randomly grouped behind glass: a copy of the Minneapolis Star from the day that Nixon resigned in 1974, and a tiny framed piece of Philadelphia's Independence Hall.

Time capsule at the Paul Bunyan Historical Museum.

One display notes that 1989 was Akeley High School's last year, with a graduating class of 13. Those students are responsible for one of the museum's most intriguing exhibits: a "time capsule" sealed on May 3, 1989, which, in fact, is a two-drawer file cabinet. A small model of Babe the Blue Ox stands elsewhere, its hooves held in place by the same red tape that seals shut the time capsule.