Bemidji has the honor of erecting the oldest surviving Paul Bunyan statue, who is accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox. Overly broad-shouldered and boxy, the 18-foot-tall, 7.5-ton Paul was built of steel and concrete in January 1937 at Cyril Dickinson's lumber yard, using then-Mayor Earl Bucklen as a model. Companion Babe the Blue Ox, once on wheels, was trucked around to Minnesota carnivals for a few years before joining Paul permanently in 1939. Both were conceived as a tribute to the lumber industry, Bemidji's principal employer at the time.