In Bemidji alone, there is the Paul Bunyan Sub Shop, the Paul Bunyan Mini-Storage Center, the Paul Bunyan Communications Company, the Paul Bunyan Playhouse, and the Paul Bunyan Mall — just off Paul Bunyan Drive. Bemidji police officers wear patches that feature both Paul Bunyan and his companion, Babe the Blue Ox.

This Bunyan abundance was spawned in 1937 by the construction of an oddly proportioned statue of Bunyan, 18 feet tall and two and a half tons, beside Lake Bemidji. There he and Babe stand guard over the visitors center, where a live-streaming camera captures his every moment of stillness.

Carol Olson, the center’s helpful manager, who has been Bunyan’s spokeswoman long enough to call him just “Paul,” says that people come the world over to pose at his feet. Kodak is said to have once declared him the second-most-photographed attraction in the country, she says, though she has yet to find any record of this honor.

Image Carol Olson, the manager of the visitors center near the Paul Bunyan statue in Bemidji, Minn. Credit... Todd Heisler/The New York Times

But why does he remain so popular? It has to do, in part, with his ubiquity, Ms. Olson says. “When I was growing up, Paul was just always there.”