Montero was a 30 pound Siamese twin baby. Their real names were Monty and Tero. As they grew older, they met new friends. They met Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, and Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett.

On day, Sally was milking a cow that was 15 feet tall and 12 feet wide. Monty and Tero wanted some milk for their cake. They were planning to make a huge cake, so they needed a lot of milk. When they saw Sally, they asked her for some of the milk. She said they had to grow 5 feet taller by the next week. Monty and Tero grew 5 feet higher. Now they were 15 feet tall. Sally agreed to give them the milk for their cake.

While Monty and Tero were making their cake, the sweet smell of their delicious cake filled the lands. Monty and Tero had finished their cakes and all the tall tale characters wanted a piece. The cake stretched so big that they had to get the biggest knife they could find. When they cut and ate the cake, everybody had a bellyache the size of a great blue whale. They couldn't fit in their houses because their bellies were so big!! They all had to sleep outside in the burning sun. First they got sunburns that were redder than a steam cooked lobster. Then they got cooked so badly that they turned blacker than the color black. That is when the cake started making them feel very awkward.

They then all began rolling around on the ground to try to cool off and make the pain go away. Later after they had finished all the rolling around, it began to rain. It rained all week long. The tall tale people returned to their normal sizes and realized that after the rain stopped, they had created great pools of water. Those great pools of water are known today as the four great oceans: the Pacific, the Arctic, the Indian, and the Atlantic.

That is how Monty and Tero became "The Great Hero Montero!" They had made more water for people to sail to other countries and lands.

In 1824 there was a baby born named Jane. Jane was six feet tall and weighed 50 pounds when she was born. Jane ate like she was grown up. She ate two helpings of macaroni and cheese, three pots of collard greens, hamhocks, neckbones, pork shoulder, potato salad, and rice all in one night! Jane was blacker than coal, hard as nails, but was always scared to fight.

When Jane was three years old, she spent her mornings, nights, evenings, and her afternoons playing a game called hoopball. In this game, you had to shoot the ball into the hoop. Jane could beat all the average-sized men at this game.

When Jane was fifteen years old, they had a tournament called "one-on-one" with the greatest hoop ball player around. His name was Big Bill. She thought she was good enough to play so she signed up.

Jane won. The score was 207 to 43. Big Bill was upset. Big Bill said because Jane was so tall, he could bring 6 other men to go against her and she would still win. After all, she was 13 feet tall!

Jane knew he was trying to trick her, but she just knew that she could beat them.

Along with Big Bill came six other men named Sneaky Simon, Tall Thomas, Little Larry, Dumb Danny, Toothless Tyrone, Corny Corey, and Huge Harold. The referee was Referee Ronald.

Since it was seven against one, they gave Jane the ball. As the game went on, the score was 96-98. They were up with 20 seconds to go. Jane made a three-pointer and won the game!

Big Bill was very upset and was embarrassed. After that game, no one ever saw Big Bill around that town again.

The Axels were a family who lived in Colorado. Mike and Beth Axel were highly religious. Everything they thought looked weird or sounded weird they thought was the work of the Devil. They thought the story of Paul Bunyan was weird because of his size, even though they never saw him.

Well, when they had their first child and saw his flame-shaped birthmark, they assumed that he was weird. This time their assumptions were partially right. It proved so when Max, their kid, was ten years old. He was so strong he could be hit with a sledge hammer and it would scatter into ten pieces. He also had a temper. Otherwise, he was friendly.

When Max was 19 years old, his family thought he was made of muscle so they made him get a job. Max looked and looked until he came upon a blacksmith. Just then, he got an idea. He thought that if he bought an axe and moved to Maine, he could get a job as a woodsman. When he told his parents that he had bought an axe and planned to get a job in Maine, Max's parents were more than happy to see him leave for a new job.

When Max got there, he looked for lots of trees. After an hour of searching, he finally found someone who wanted a forest chopped down. He discussed the pay with the owner of the forest and started immediately. With one powerful swing, Max cut down a tree. The stump looked as if it had been pressed because when Max cut down that tree, he had cut it in a straight line as if it was done by machinery. This went on with every tree that Max cut. When the owner of the forest saw that Max had done the job so well, he gave Max twice the pay.

Max wanted to get home as soon as he could, so he took an express train to Colorado. Max rushed to his house only to find out that his parents had abandoned that house. They had heard their son, Max, was doing spectacular things and they were afraid there might be evil associated with it. When he found them gone, he was very angry. He took his axe and went on a rampage. First he swung his axe to get power from gravity. Then he put most of his strength into his axe and slammed it into the ground. The ground split in half and formed a canyon. That's how the Grand Canyon was made.

Max went looking for his parents, found them, and explained that he and his birthmark were not to be feared. He stayed home for awhile, but the call of the lumberjack and uncut forests called him away time and time again.

I am Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett. I live near the Mississippi River. One day I was walking along the Mississippi River when Mike Fink came along and started to brag about all his exciting adventures on the water. Even though Mike did very well on the waters, he talked about them too much. Just to make him stop talking, I said that I had an adventure on the sea too. He started to laugh. Then he said, "Sally on the water! What a joke!"

After he was finished laughing, he made a bet with me. The bet was for me to sail the seas and then come back with the proof that I had done it. Then he said, putting his big foot next to the water, "What if you just take a twig from here and say it was from another land. How would I know you had been there?"

Mike stared at me with his big eyes sticking out. Then I said, in a strong voice that could blow a mountain down, "I will change the way the oceans and seas taste!"

He dipped his fingers into the water and tasted the water of the river. I reminded him that I was going to change the taste in the oceans and the seas not in the rivers, ponds, and lakes.

He agreed and we had a bet!

So I started to get ready for my voyage. When I made my ship the bottom of the ship was made of salt. When I set sail to go, the wind wasn't blowing so I sat up on top of a tall pole and started to blow. When I turned around, I couldn't see any land anymore. The only thing I could see was a long trail of salt. I smiled to myself with joy. Then I thought to myself that if I was going to put salt in all of the oceans and seas it would take me a long time. Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind, what could I do faster? Then it hit me like a sack of potatoes. I reached down into the water and spun my hand around until the boat started to turn around and around.

Then I blew the sail and found that I hit an island. I jumped out of the ship and pulled a funny looking tree out of the ground. I hurled it back into the ship. Then I jumped back onto the ship, but just before I got back, I tasted the water. The water was salty! When I got back onto the ship, I stuck out my tongue and said, "Boy, do I need some water." But I couldn't drink that salty water. I went back up the pole, took a deep breath, and blew into the sails as hard as I could. But I blew so hard that the ship flew up to a very cold, icy place.

I lifted the big chunk of ice off the ship and took it aboard. Then, in one blow, I was back along the shore of Georgia where I had started.

Because of my bet with Mike Fink this is how salt got into the salty seas and oceans. I found Mike Fink and showed him my proof!

Gold Burg was born in Los Angeles, California. The year was 1848 when Gold Burg was born. He was rich. He weighed 15 pounds. He talked when he was 10 seconds old. He was really strong! After an hour old, he was outside crushing rocks with his hand. He almost crushed gold when his father took it away. His father told him about gold and how they got rich. By the age of 18, he was gold mining. He was the fastest gold miner ever. He would make a wind dust. Other people would just leave.

Gold Burg got married to a girl named Cassandra Smith. After the marriage, he paid people to help build a big house. Gold Burg's house held all of his gold. He was the finest gold miner ever.

Patty Root is a powerful, brave, clever, smart, and also an athletic woman. Patty has a jump or leap which is the longest and farthest than anyone else's jump or leap. Root could jump from one end of a state to the other in about 2-4 leaps.

One day as the sky turned dark and thunder clouds covered the sun, Patty Root took out a long ladder and leaned it against a mountain. Root climbed up the ladder which led to the sky. Patty held her hands up high and pulled the clouds away. She used her voice and screamed the clouds away. She also blew hard and in a few seconds the thunder clouds were gone.

Patty then climbed down. She headed back to her house. Just as she was about to close the door, a small skinny boy stopped the door with his back. He introduced himself. His name was Josh Gallie. He had been sent from the town's mayor. The mayor knew that Patty could deliver a packet in a few minutes. Josh gave Patty a big packet. It was heavy too, but to Patty, the packet wasn't heavy! He then took off. Root read the address on the packet. She had to deliver this packet and message to California. It was important news to be delivered. From New York to California was nothing for her.

Patty prepared for the journey by getting a hat, a pair of boots, and a jacket. After she had finished, she set off. During her journey, she faced a strong wild cat. It took Patty 2 seconds to beat the wild cat. She outran a hawk that is given great speed. She jumped over the Great Salt Lake! Root got to California in 10 minutes. She had delivered the packet in time, so a mayor in California and a mayor in New York were now safe because the packet was so important that both mayors were in danger. Thanks to Patty Root, they are safe. When Patty Root got back to New York, she became a hero!

Icumus Lightning was the strongest man in the rain county. When outside the house, he could chop a 50-foot long tree in half with one strike of his axe. He could lift up his house and pick out all the little critters underneath it.

One rainy night when he was doing one of his daily jobs, which was cooking, his wife, Harissa Thunder-Lightning, started to scream at the children for running around their cloud house.

"You children, stop running around the cloud house or you might poke a hole in it and fall through!" she screamed.

She sounded like a banshee calling pigs. Then all of a sudden, she stopped and there was silence. Icumus thought it was okay to finish cooking, but as soon as he started up again, he heard his wife yell, "Stop it. Stop it now!"

This gave him such a scare and with that he dropped the frying pan out of his hand. The hot food flew out of the pan and scalded his legs. The heavy metal frying pan dropped on his big toe. Nothing hurt more than having a heavy metal frying pan drop on your toe. Ooh! Did it hurt! He grabbed his big toe and jumped around the house in pain, but not too hard because he didn't want to fall through. While he was limping back to the stove to pick up the frying pan and fallen food, he saw the fire from the stove leap down and head straight for Earth. Even though it was raining, the fireballs had such a blaze that it couldn't be put out. Because of its speed, they turned into a zigzag shape. They also made a noise that sounded like his wife's crackling scream. This was something new that had happened because of an accident that could have happened to anybody. When these fireballs hit Earth, it split a tree in half just like him when Icumus was striking a tree with one strike of his axe.

Icumus went down to Earth right away because he needed to tell everyone what had happened. He wanted to show-off, as usual, but it amazed the people. As soon as he got to Earth, he saw people standing outside their houses. Icumus told all the people about his new invention and about how it only comes when there is a rainstorm or when one is starting. He made that up just to be more of a bragger. The townspeople were excited to hear his story and were interested in it.

When the townspeople asked him what his new invention was called, he said with such confidence, "I call the zigzag shapes lightning. It is named after myself because it goes down to Earth with such speed just like me and it can chop a tree in half . . . ."

"We know, just like you!" laughed the people of Raintown.

Icumus was a little sad that he didn't get to finish his sentence because he was on a roll and so his self-esteem went down. Soon he started to laugh and his self-esteem shot straight through the roof.

The people in the town feared the thunder and lightning that rainy night when they first discovered it. That is the story of how Icumus Lightning invented thunder and lightning. Today people still fear lightning because they are afraid of being hit by it and being split in half just like on that rainy night back in 1851 when thunder was invented.

As of December 4, 2003, you are visitor to enjoy our student-created tall tales.