Which American Legend Are You?

Paul Bunyan never let negativity into his life. If he needed water for Babe the Blue Ox, well, he just dug another Great Lake. Speaking of Babe, Paul was also a good friend and an even better employer. His men were served flapjacks that would normally take five men to eat. He was a man who didn't even know there was anything but a good attitude.

John Chapman was a true lover of nature--so much so that he refused to spread apple trees by grafting, because it would physically hurt the trees. Instead, he carried a sack of apple seeds, barefoot, over thousands of miles, planting orchards wherever he went. Without Johnny, the Midwest would not have been settled so fast. For a homesteader to make a claim, they had to have 50 apple trees. Johnny planted those orchards and then sold them at a fair price or even gave them away to new settlers. He also saved alcohol for a time. The apples he sowed were for making hard cider in a time that corn whiskey had a high tax!

The Steel Drivin' Man is a paragon of work ethic, determination, and never giving up. I mean, we wish he had, but wow. He forged his hammer out of the chains that held him in the bondage of slavery and used that hammer to beat through the obstacles in his path. He won a race against a steam drill, through the mountain, to prove that a man didn't have to be replaced by a machine. The race wasn't just for him; it was for all working people. It may have been at a hard price, but he won just the same.

'Little Sure Shot' never let social convention stand in her way. Before she was even 16 years old, she had made enough money hunting game to pay off her mother's mortgage. When she was in a railroad accident later in life and paralyzed, she recovered quickly and went back on stage in Wild West shows. People all over the world, from every background, admired her courage, spirit, and kindness.

Sally Ann believed she could do anything, said she could do anything, and so it was. She told her family, 'I'm amazing!' the minute she learned to talk. Her self-confidence was explosive, and with it, she slung alligators, ran faster than a wildcat, and hibernated with bears. She even saved Davy Crockett by knotting together rattlesnakes into a rope and lassoing him out of the tree he was trapped in.

Kate Shelley was just 15 years old when she exhibited more bravery than could be expected of anyone. A flash flood had caused a railroad trellis to collapse when the locomotive passed over it. It happened right outside her house. Knowing that another train was due, Kate, in pitch-black darkness, crawled across the Des Moines bridge, amid thunder and lightning, and then ran two miles to the next station house to stop the train. She became a national hero.