Conceived as a way to launch the inaugural Aquatennial Celebration, the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby was a 450-mile race that took place on the Mississippi River between 1940 and 1960. Teams of two paddlers raced in stages from Bemidji to Minneapolis, with stops in Grand Rapids, Palisades, Aitken, Brainerd, Little Falls, St. Cloud, and Anoka. In some years, the race included a stop at Bena on Lake Winnibigoshish to mitigate the dangerous crossing.
The first race began on the morning of Saturday, July 13, 1940. Teams finished in Minneapolis on Saturday, July 20, with brothers Ace and Ed Eliason of Hovland winning. Bud and Harry Tibbetts, Leech Lake Ojibwe paddlers from Ball Club, finished second.
The first-place team was awarded $500. Second place received $250 and third place $100. Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-place competitors got seventy-five dollars, fifty dollars, and twenty-five dollars, respectively. The Minneapolis Tribune reported that 100,000 people watched the final sprint, and that another 100,000 people had seen the race en route.
Throughout the 1940s, the race saw heavy participation from the Ojibwe community, most notably members of the Tibbetts family. In the 1940 race, for example, the second-, fifth-, and sixth-place teams were all composed of Ojibwe racers from the Leech Lake area.
The canoe derby was held again in 1941 and 1942. The 1941 contest was marred by controversy over the winning Chicago team’s unusual canoe design and paddling style. The 1942 race was more congenial, with fewer teams entering.
With the onset of World War II, the 1943 race on the Mississippi was replaced by a forty-five-mile race that saw a four-time circuit around the Chain of Lakes in Minneapolis, with prizes offered in war bonds and stamps. In 1944 and 1945, a shorter race on Lake Calhoun (later renamed Bde Maka Ska) was open only to those seventeen and under. The full canoe derby on the Mississippi River resumed in 1946.
In 1947, sixteen-year-old Bill Smith Jr. entered the derby with his father. The two finished in thirteenth place. The race was won by Ray Tibbetts and Bill Evers.
The following year, in 1948, Smith served as driver for two racers from North Minneapolis, Eugene Jensen and Tom Estes, who won the derby. After the race, Smith approached fourth-place finishers Jim and Bernie Smith (no relation), Ojibwe paddlers from Ball Club, and asked to purchase their canoe. They sold it to him for $100.
In 1949, the race was renamed the “Mando-Aquatennial Canoe Derby” owing to sponsorship from Mando, the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company. Bill Smith entered the race with speed skater Bob Bergstrom. The duo paddled Jim and Bernie Smith’s canoe, finishing in fourth place. Jensen and Estes won again.
After the 1949 derby, Jensen approached Smith and offered to buy his canoe. Smith refused, but he lent the boat to Jenson. It is believed the round-bottomed hull, crafted by Jim and Bernie Smith, informed Jensen’s subsequent canoe designs.
The next year, in 1950, the race was again referred to as the “Paul Bunyan Aquatennial canoe derby,” with Jensen and Estes winning a third time in their newly designed, round-bottom canoe. In 1951, Harlow Thompson and Dick Peck of Deer River took first place in a twenty-four-foot wooden canoe made by canoe maker William Hafeman of Big Fork.
The race was discontinued in 1952 in favor of a “Power Boat Derby,” causing much controversy. Instead, a shortened, eight-mile canoe race was held on Cedar Lake, Lake of the Isles, and Lake Calhoun in that year. In 1953 and 1954 abbreviated versions of the derby returned to the Mississippi River, starting at Anoka and St. Cloud, respectively. Then in 1959, the 450-mile Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby from Bemidji to Minneapolis was revived, with the final race held in 1960. Jensen and Estes won for a fourth time.
In 1961, the derby was turned over to the Boy Scouts of America. Troops competed in relay teams on an abbreviated course until 1964, after which the race was discontinued.
Many of the participants in the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby went on to win other major canoe races in Canada and the US. In 1961 derby veterans including Eugene Jensen and Karl Ketter founded the Minnesota Canoe Club, which later became the Minnesota Canoe Association. During the latter half of the twentieth century, Jensen continued to work as an influential canoe designer and innovator. He is credited with inventing the bent-shaft paddle.