Rooted in Values, Services and Mission

By Alyson Levig

Since 1995, Mike’s Tree Company has provided excellence in their knowledgeable tree care services throughout the Brainerd lakes area while also rooting down their community and employee-focused mission toward present and future generations. Owner and founder Mike Schwarze has worked tirelessly to grow the image and integrity of his company to be a year-round local resource for the community, providing snow removal and land clearings during winter besides the many tree services and mulch sales throughout summer. All of which relate toward their customer-centric referral reputation, pride in completed work and dedication to ministering to the community.

Qualified Employees

As an additional show of their commitment to their mission, Mike’s Tree Company has 30 employees, who on average retain at least 12-15 years. Four to six are certified arborists while the rest are highly-trained, dedicated crew members, yet all participate in training from national organizations each year which are then incorporated into standards throughout the company. These changing standards establish a safe and professional end goal for both crew and clients.

“We are always investing in state-of-the-art equipment for our employees,” Mike said. “It helps us become more efficient with all the services we provide.” protection, stump removal, insect disease control, and even attend to soil care. Moreover, you can trust these to follow safe and correct procedures to ensure the protection of your tree(s) for future generations.

New Moves at Mike’s

Though Mike’s Tree Company has been around the Brainerd lakes area for almost 30 years, many branches have extended in the company within the past two. With the purchase of a crane, Mike’s has expanded its land clearing division, enabling them to take on more commercial-size projects. And with land clearings comes wood waste. But Mike’s Tree Company recycles all wood waste from projects at company headquarters to be resold as sustainable mulch, with eight different available colors, including natural hardwood, barnwood red and light chestnut brown.

Because of this ongoing investment in equipment and training knowledgeable workers, the employees at Mike’s Tree Company can easily conduct tree removals, trimmings, pruning,

Finally, Mike’s Tree Company has also opened its doors to the local community and other businesses as a drop-spot for their organic yard waste, which helps reduce the amounts heading to a nearby landfill and instead re-purposes it back into the community as a landscape feature.

Check out Mike’s Tree Company with a precious piece of their grandparents. The building doubled as the family house for a long time, and they recall stories of their dad as a young entrepreneur, biking around the nearby lake to collect and swell worms.

Overall, Mike’s Tree Company is a local, friendly, growing business with an extensive customer-based reputation rooted down into the community because of their focus on their work in servicing the Brainerd lakes area. Trust that Mike’s will take care of both you and your trees, ensuring a healthy population for generations to come.

“It would have meant nothing to anybody else,” Moon said of the building. “But to us it meant a lot.”

Old-fashioned porcelain dolls, train sets, ships, buggies and so many, many more antique collectibles draw the eye in the various buildings. Historic Brainerd artifacts line the shelves, too, including paraphernalia from the old Paramount Theatre.

“Sometimes it’s not the age of something, but it’s the uniqueness,” Moon said.

A shed stands full of classic cars, including the Model A bought decades ago by Dick Rademacher and his father, Ralph. There’s a golf cart that belonged to Muriel Humphrey, wife of Minnesota Sen. and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. And in the same automotive vein, old gas pumps line one of the buildings, advertising gas prices at mere pennies per gallon.

A lot has changed since the times that are preserved in the Pioneer Village, and so much about Paul Bunyan Land itself is different, too.

But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed. The park’s namesake remains the focal point.

The man, the myth, the legend

After serving as the main attraction at the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949, the giant Paul Bunyan was purchased by two Brainerd businessmen and moved to the original location of Paul Bunyan Land — at the intersection of highways 371 and 210 in Baxter. He began attracting visitors to the amusement park in 1950 and still takes that job seriously today, nearly 75 years later.

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With a voice as big as Paul’s comes equally big responsibility.

No one knows that better than Hans and Virgil, the current voices of Paul.

“Voicing a character such as Paul and being able to entertain the public is quite the honor,” Virgil said during a phone interview.

Opting only to be referred to by their first names, the duo trade off giving the giant lumberjack that iconic booming voice. Those who listen closely will hear a slight Canadian accent, eh? That’s done on purpose to pay homage to Paul’s Franco-American ancestry.

“Paul Bunyan was an amalgamism of two Canadian lumberjacks,” Hans explained. “And I believe that tales of Paul Bunyan started in the FrenchCanadian logging camps.”

Today the legend has grown to one of giant proportions — pun intended — making Paul Bunyan the Mickey Mouse of the North, a summertime Santa, watching closely to see if kids are naughty or nice. It’s another big job that comes with the voice.

“I love entertaining the public and being a teacher to children, reminding them that obedient children are rewarded,” Hans said. “And that’s why

Santa Claus rewards nice children with Christmas presents, or Babe the Blue Ox gets a sugar lump when he’s nice.” Perhaps most importantly, Hans likes to remind kids that “mother knows best.”

“All mothers like that one,” he said.

When Paul isn’t welcoming kids to the park or reminding them to be on their best behavior, he’s likely doing one of his all-time favorite things — singing.

“Paul is not only the world’s largest talking animated man, he loves to sing as well,” Hans said. “I have sung many children’s songs, including his favorite, ‘Pop Goes the Weasel.’”

And if a child ever calls Paul “creepy,” which happens from time to time, he’ll have a little fun by singing the theme song from “The Addams Family.”

Hans began talking and singing as Paul nine years ago and boasts over 4,000 hours of experience.

He recalls running into Paul himself as a youngster, after his family moved up to the lakes area from the Twin Cities in 1981.

“He said my name, and I was never scared. I was just stunned, how he

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He went back to visit Paul on several occasions and was even present in Baxter on closing day in 2003, standing next to Don McFarland when the first chapter of Paul Bunyan Land closed. Then in 2015, Hans traipsed over to Paul Bunyan Land with his dad, hoping to find work mowing the grass at the amusement park.

But in a twist of fate, there was only one job open — the voice of Paul.

“I rubbed my chin and said, ‘Hmm, maybe I could do that,’” Hans said. “And Lois looked at me, and her jaw dropped. She pointed and said, ‘Perfect.’”

It wasn’t planned, but it was clearly meant to be.

Virgil vaguely remembers Paul at the first amusement park location, being about 3 or 4 years old when everything was in Baxter.

“I was just a little shy, but I remember I pretty much warmed up to him pretty quickly and everything,” Virgil said. “... It was one of the things that helped me get acquainted with Paul Bunyan as a whole.”

He started working at Paul Bunyan Land as a ride operator in 2016. When he showed an interest in voicing Paul, he learned the job was already covered.

It just wasn’t meant to be — yet.

Partway through the 2018 season, though, a second voice for Paul was wanted.

“And the first guy that came to my mind was my buddy Virgil,” Hans every job available at Paul Bunyan Land over the past nine years, from retail to rides to cook to park manager. Now she works on the marketing side of the business in the summer while she’s not teaching. Her dad brought her to the park as a kid after he, himself, had worked there in his teenage years. She eventually found the same enjoyment in that kind of employment.

“I love working for the Rademacher family,” Larson said. “They really do make this a full family operation with their employees and with their guests. … I just like getting to help make those memories, seeing the smiles on those kids’ faces.” said.

And perhaps Larson’s own daughter will follow in her mom and grandpa’s footsteps, finding a job at Paul Bunyan Land when she’s old enough.

Park Manager Wendy Kasper doesn’t have to wait to share the experience with the younger generations in her family. She and her two granddaughters came to the park together looking for work, and all three of them love it.

Kasper recalls working for the old park back when it was in Baxter, too, and now continues her family’s tradition at the Brainerd location.

“It’s amazing that it’s still up and running,” she said.

Hans trained Virgil in the art of voicing Paul. And it helped that the two already had similar-sounding voices.

Moon said she even struggles to tell the difference sometimes when listening to Paul.

Virgil officially started in 2019, taking the morning shift for Paul, while Hans fills in the afternoon.

Now, the two voices are best friends, able to bounce ideas off one another when needed.

And they never forget the other friend who made all of it possible.

Dick Rademacher died in April 2024, but his legacy lives on in the 160 acres of farmland he gave for Paul Bunyan Land and This Old Farm Pioneer Village.

“We must always remember that, thanks to Dick giving his family some land for Paul Bunyan Land to be built on, Paul and Babe could stay in the Brainerd area, where they remain to this day,” Hans said, reiterating the speech he gave at Dick’s funeral.

“Without Dick, there wouldn’t be a Paul Bunyan Land,” he added. “And we wouldn’t have a job voicing Paul.”

And so many people wouldn’t have the memories they do.

A family affair

Families out at Paul Bunyan Land Monday, July 8, drove bumper cars, climbed the rock wall, ate ice cream and discovered all the amusement park had to offer.

It’s not only the visitors who come back to the park year after year with their families, though. It’s the employees, too.

Jackie Larson has done just about

And that’s thanks to Rademacher and Moon and all the work they’ve put into the business over the past 21 years. Paul Bunyan Land reopened in Brainerd Memorial Day weekend in 2004, not missing a single season when changing ownership. At that time, Moon and Rademacher both already had full-time jobs. Moon was a teacher’s aide, and Rademacher worked at Shannon’s Auto Body. Up until about six years ago, Rademacher still worked elsewhere in the winter, but now it’s hard to even do that with their commitment to Paul Bunyan Land. There are rides to rebuild and maintenance projects to keep up with.

“We are not the owners that spend six months down south,” Moon said. “... That’s when we do our maintenance. We are over here painting a building or building this or making that. We do it ourselves.”

It’s something they have to live and breathe in order to keep succeeding.

“It has to be your passion,” Moon said. “We just never stopped.”

And they don’t have plans to do so anytime soon.

They’ve updated the concessions area, added a 32-site campground in 2019, and, of course, there are the fall festivities. While the Paul Bunyan