There are many contradictory myths about Northwoods lumberjacks and the work they did in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were depicted as hard-living, violent men, but also as upstanding, conservation-minded gentlemen. Recently, Willa Hammitt Brown, the author of the book “Gentlemen of the Woods: Manhood, Myth and the American Lumberjack,” visited “The Larry Meiller Show” to help sort out logger legend from lumberjack reality. … Contrary to Paul Bunyan’s current folk hero status, Hammitt Brown recalled that in the earliest tale written about him — 1906’s “Round River Drive” — Bunyan was “a jerk.” The story depicted Bunyan as a dishonest logger who tricked his men into taking logs around and around the same river so that he would never have to pay them. …Hammitt Brown said lumberjacks, like other itinerant workers of the era, were feared and distrusted because of their lack of family ties or meaningful attachment to the community.