During Red River Lumber Company’s expansion to California, they had number of hurdles to overcome. Since they would be using a different species of pine, than what they had previously used in Minnesota, they had to monumental task to educate their customers. Part of the duty fell to Archie Walker in Minneapolis, and he contacted his cousin, W.B. “Bill” Laughead, who was doing some free-lance advertising work to assist him. At this time, Paul Bunyan was a little known folklore, associated with loggers. The two came up with the idea of Paul Bunyan, and prior to this no one had rendered a drawing of the mythical logger.
In 1916, Red River published a post-card size pamphlet entitled Introducing Paul Bunyan to Westwood. As Laughead recalled, “The pamphlet was a complete flop. Apparently nobody had ever heard of Paul Bunyan. As an advertising symbol, Bunyan carried no significance. Only a few loggers, not all of them by any means, had ever heard of Paul’s name. The men to whom our advertising was directed—sawmill men, wholesalers, and dealers—didn’t know what we were talking about. And, of course, he was completely unknown to the public.”
It was not a complete failure in Archie Walker’s opinion as he liked the Paul Bunyan concept. This was, after all, Red River’s first attempt at advertising, even though they had been in business for over thirty years. To educate the public Red River began a trade journal advertising campaign. The initial emphasis was full-page ads in the Mississippi Valley Lumberman. The ads featured Paul Bunyan informing the public of Red River’s new California pine product. Red River then expanded its exposure with ads appearing in the American Lumberman, a nationwide trade magazine. With the advertising program, Laughead unexpectedly found full time employment with Red River and the company had a new trademark in Paul Bunyan.