By: Natalie Abner

Tall Tale Characters

• This tall tale figure was based on a real man who was once an Indian scout on the Ohio river.

• He claimed that he could wrestle alligators, ride a mouse like a horse, and outrun or outshoot any man in America.

• He was called “King of the Keel boatmen”

• Davy Crockett described him as “ half horse and half alligator”

Mike Fink

• He achieved his distinctive color after surviving a snow storm

• He used the Great Lakes as watering holes and helped straighten out curvy logging roads

• He was the animal companion of Paul Bunyan

Babe The Blue Ox

• He worked in an orchard as a young man in Massachusetts

• He was also a missionary in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois

• He as an American conservationist who brought apple trees to western Pennsylvania and other states to the west Pennsylvania and other states to the west

• His real name is John Chapman

• He always walked barefoot, and he wore a pail for a cap

Johnny Appleseed

• This folk hero was a real person who represented Tennessee in the U.S. House or Representatives

• He was an expert marksman who wore a trademark coonskin cap

• He was nicknamed the “King of the Wild Frontier,” and died at the Battle of the Alamo

Davy Crockett

• This folk hero was associated with the Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains. A statue of this folk hero stands nearby this tunnel

• He saved his friend’s jobs by defeating a steam-power hammer in a race

• He was an African-American folk hero, who “died with his hammer in his hand”

John Henry

• This legendary figure is based on a real man who grew up in western Kentucky

• He was an engineer on the Cannonball Express and died when it collided with a stalled freight train

• He was known for his skill with a train whistle

Casey Jones

• He was a legendary Texas cowboy who was raised by a pack coyotes

• His favorite food was dynamite, he sometimes rode a mountain lion, and he once lassoed a tornado

• He married Slue-Foot-Sue and often rode the horse, Widow Maker

Pecos Bill

• A tall-tale legend giant often accompanied by his pet, Babe the Blue Ox

• He was said to have flattened the Great Plains as part of his career as a lumberjack

• According to legend, this gigantic man dug out the grand canyon

• He and his pet created both the Great Lakes and Minnesota’s ten thousand lakes

Paul Bunyan

• He was a mythical West Virginia woodsman and Paul Bunyan’s cousin

• Supposedly, he was the champion griddle skater of the southern United States

• He built a log camp on a high mountain just beyond Eel River

Tony Beaver

• This legendary character shot at clouds while riding a catfish down the Rio Grande River

• She is the wife of Pecos Bill

• According to legend, when her husband’s horse Widow Maker, bucked her, she bounced up to the moon

Slue-Foot Sue

• This folk hero’s actual name was Martha Jane Canary she was an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok

• She skilled Indian fighter

• She also known as the toughest woman in the Wild West

Calamity Jane

Works Citedhttps://www.google.com/search?q=davy+crockett&biw=1600&bih=805&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=VNWuVMuyKYGwyATqhYDgCQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=1

https://www.google.com/search?q=tall+tall+characters&biw=1600&bih=805&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=t9euVOjMJoH5yQSA9YKQBg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw

http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/tall-tales/

http://www.42explore.com/talltale.htm