Paul Bunyan Mountain and Blues Festival

The weekend begins after dark on Friday at the corner of Third and Ash streets, in front of the Westwood Visitor Center. The building is a reproduction of the town’s railroad depot, which was built in 1914 and torn down in 1974. For the 2026 festival, held July 10 and 11, the northern California band Forgery played a free street dance there from 8 p.m. for three hours. Forgery held the same spot in 2019, with vendors selling food and drink in the parking lot. In 2018 the band was Rickety Bridge, whose members Cory Rickert and David Bainbridge wrote on their web page: “Our appetite for music is insatiable. Country, rock, bluegrass, progressive, finger style, Hall and Oates, we’ve consumed it all and still go back for more.”

Saturday morning on Ash Street

Saturday starts at 8 a.m. with two events. Breakfast in 2026 was cooked by the Westwood High School ASB clubs at the Community Center, at Third and Birch streets. In 2018 and 2019 the breakfast belonged to the Westwood Museum, whose volunteers served pancakes, eggs and bacon to support Westwood Museum Inc., the nonprofit that oversees the museum. The Community Center was once the home of Ted Walker, eldest son of the mill’s operating manager. Its west extension was added in 1976 as a community hall.

At the same hour a 5K fun run and walk leaves from the visitor center. Jon and Emily Foy organized it in 2018 and gave the proceeds to Westwood youth sports and community projects. In 2019 the money went to the Westwood High School sports program.

The parade steps off at 10:30 a.m. at Third and Ash. The theme for 2026 was “Red, White and Blue for 250 years.” In earlier years the route ran down Ash Street to Third and on to Westwood Park on Greenwood Street, where the festival waits. The chamber invites anyone to join: children on decorated bicycles, clubs on foot or in pickups and trailers, owners of classic cars and convertibles, and riders on horseback.

Saws and axes in Westwood Park

Gates open at 11 a.m. at Westwood Park, Greenwood and 2nd streets. In 2026 admission was $10, or $5 for children 10 and under. The children’s area costs extra, and organizers warn that the event is not dog-friendly. The chamber’s listings give festival hours as 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Lassen News gave 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in 2018 and 2019.

The logging show starts at noon. The 2026 entry form lists its events:

• Saws: single buck and Jack and Jill handsaw races, and three classes of chainsaw, the largest an unlimited hot saw that makes a single cut through a log or cant of 30 to 32 inches.
• Local stock saw: limited to residents of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra counties, who bring their own saws.
• Axes: the speed axe, which runs thirty seconds; the underhand chop; the standing block; and the springboard.
• Women’s events: an underhand chop and a standing chop.
• The Ole Salem Memorial Axe Throw: winner take all.

Lassen News, writing in 2019, called the logging show “the most unusual aspect of the festival.” Some events use old logging methods and others the techniques of modern lumberjacks, and contestants are timed on how fast they get through a log. That year’s program also included a choker race. In 2018 the logging show organizers, Jack Medici and Tommy Salem, expected more than 20 competitors. A junior logging show gives children nail driving and log rolling, with a medal to each event winner.

Blue Ox Bingo and the blues

The stage stands on a lawn shaded by pine trees, near the food vendors, and listeners bring blankets or lawn chairs to stake out a place. In 2026 Rowland and Tumblin’ played from noon until 2 p.m., followed by Riggid from 2:30 to 4:30. Earlier stages:

• 2019: the Jason King Band of Reno, and the Kyle Rowland Blues Band of Sacramento, formed in 2010.
• 2018: the Amy Celeste Band and Nothin’ Personal.

Around the lawn are craft and food booths, antiques, collectibles, antique furniture and repurposed goods. The chamber’s 2025 and 2026 listings add pickleball.

The children’s carnival has had an inflatable water slide, a slip and slide and a climbing wall. Its stands sell cotton candy, kettle corn, Hawaiian ice and gourmet lemonade. An apple pie contest was new in 2018. Each baker brings two pies, one for the judges and one to sell, and first place wins a five-quart stand mixer.

Blue Ox Bingo is what Lassen News calls a festival tradition. Squares are sold on a grassy plot marked with numbers. A steer grazes there, and the winner is the square where the steer relieves itself. The pot depends on how many squares were sold.

A logo from the Red River advertising department

Lassen News explains the festival’s name this way: the escapades of Paul Bunyan were the advertising strategy of the Red River Lumber Company, the mill Westwood was built around. The town’s walking tour gives the details. William Laughead, who worked in Red River’s advertising department, created the company’s Paul Bunyan logo. He also drew small booklets of Bunyan’s tall tales and logging operations as company advertising. Statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, modeled on that logo, were dedicated in Westwood on July 4, 1988.

According to the chamber, the company came west from Minnesota and brought the legend of Paul and Babe with it. The chamber calls Westwood “the Town that Paul Built” and says the company made it one of the most technologically advanced townships in the country, “right down to the steam heated sidewalks.”

The first settlement, in 1913, was called Walker Camp. The first house on the new town site, built that same year, went to Fletcher Walker, the operating manager, and his wife Eveline. The mill ran from 1914 to 1957. The walking tour calls it the largest pine lumber mill in the world during the 1930s, covering more than 100 acres and employing about 5,000 people. Its pond covered about 320 acres and had heated sections, so logs could be pulled out when the rest froze over. The mill buildings were taken down for their lumber in the 1960s and 1970s. The only original building left is a small concrete pump house beside Robbers Creek, on private land. Lassen News wrote in 2018 that Westwood produced many lumberjacks while the mill ran, and for years after it closed.

Themes and grand marshals

The festival falls in the week of the Fourth of July or just after. The 30th annual festival was held Saturday, July 7, 2018. The 31st was July 6, 2019, the 37th was July 5, 2025, and the chamber listed the 38th for July 11, 2026.

The 2018 parade theme was “Hometown Hospitality.” Its grand marshals were Susan and Steve Goodwin, owners of the Westwood Quik Mart and FuelGood gas station. In 2019 the grand marshal was Mary Hasselwander, who had lived in Westwood 51 years and sat on the boards of Westwood Museum, Inc. and the Westwood Community Services District. The theme that July was “At Least It’s Not Snowing.”