American Tall Tales - Page 2

Exaggerated frontier adventures celebrating heroes like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and John Henry.

Parchment-style artwork of Johnny Appleseed sowing apple seeds under a glowing sunset, American folktale scene.

Johnny Appleseed: A Folktale of Generosity and Hope

by Oyebode Ayoola

October 21, 2025

American Folktales·American Tall Tales

Long ago, when America was still a patchwork of forests, rivers, and scattered cabins, there wandered a man unlike any other. His name was John Chapman, but to the people of the frontier, he was lovingly known as Johnny Appleseed. Johnny was a small, wiry man with gentle eyes and a calm voice. He wore simple clothes that were often

Parchment-style artwork of Mike Fink on a keelboat aiming his rifle, American folktale scene.

American Folktales·American Tall Tales

Mike Fink, The Boastful River King: An American Folktale That Teaches Lessons on Courage and Humility

Along the restless waters of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, where fog rolled low and the cries of riverbirds echoed through dawn’s mist, there once ruled a man larger than life, Mike Fink, the self-proclaimed King of the Keelboatmen. Born on the wild American frontier, Mike was part woodsman, part

Parchment-style artwork of Pecos Bill riding a cyclone across the Texas plains, American folktale scene.

Pecos Bill,The Wildest Cowboy: An American Folktale That Teaches Lessons on Courage and Imagination

In the dusty wilds of the Texas frontier, where the horizon stretched

Parchment-style artwork of Davy Crockett facing the Thunder-Whopper Bear in a misty Tennessee forest, American folktale scene.

Davy Crockett and the Thunder-Whopper Bear: American Folktale of Courage and Wit

In the early days of the American frontier, when Tennessee’s hills still

A historic blacksmith forging a glowing railroad spike in a riverbank forge as early locomotives approach

The Blacksmith Who Forged the First Railroad Spike

January 12, 2026

American Folktales·American Tall Tales

In a time when iron rails were only beginning to stretch across the rolling hills of the eastern United States, there was a blacksmith whose hands and heart were known for their skill and care. His forge sat quietly by a gentle river, away from the hubbub of construction crews

A legendary Ohio laborer holding up a storm filled sky to protect a town below

The Man Who Held Up the Sky in Ohio

January 12, 2026

African American Folktales·American Tall Tales

Long before highways stitched the Midwest together and before Ohio’s towns were pinned neatly on maps, there lay a working settlement pressed between river, forest, and open sky. The people there lived by the rhythm of labor. They cut timber, hauled stone, tilled soil, and raised barns with their own

A gentle giant resting beside a wide curved Mississippi River, shaping the land as water flows around him.

The Giant Who Carved the Mississippi Bend

January 12, 2026

African American Folktales·American Tall Tales

Before maps gave the Mississippi River a name and before people argued over where its waters began or ended, the river moved as it wished. It wandered across the land slowly, testing the soil, listening to the ground, and remembering everything it touched. In those early days, when the earth

A young ranch hand standing on the open plains as a distant tornado forms under a dark sky.

The Boy Who Lassoed a Tornado’s Tail

January 10, 2026

American Folktales·American Tall Tales

Long before fences stitched the Southern Plains into neat squares, the land rolled open and wide beneath a sky that never learned restraint. Wind was a constant companion there. It whispered through grass, howled across flat earth, and sometimes rose up furious and spinning, demanding attention from anyone foolish enough

A solitary frontier hunter standing calmly in a dense forest with a rifle lowered in respect.

The Hunter Who Never Missed Twice

January 10, 2026

American Folktales·American Tall Tales

In the early days of the American frontier, when forests stretched farther than any road and silence carried more meaning than speech, there lived a hunter known simply as Elias Boone. No one remembered where he came from. Some said he walked out of the mountains one autumn morning with

A powerful frontier woman laughing as she wrestles a bear beneath storm clouds on the American frontier

Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett

January 10, 2026

American Folktales·American Tall Tales

Long before towns spread across the hills and long before railroads split the land, there lived a woman whose name traveled faster than thunder and lingered longer than echoes in a canyon. Her name was Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett, and wherever the frontier stretched, her legend followed. Sally