Originally Gary Sinise was cast as the father, Jonas Hackett, but left the cast to play Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump.
Most depictions of Paul Bunyan make him a supernaturally tall giant, perhaps 10 or 15 feet tall. This version of Paul has an average man's height, but with a larger-than-life personality to compensate.
John Henry may have been based on a historical person, a railroad laborer who was killed in a cave-in accident in the early 1870s (probably in West Virginia), but this is unconfirmed. Paul Bunyan appears to have originated in oral form among lumbermen in Minnesota and neighboring states shortly before 1900, with his first printed attestation appearing in 1904 in an editorial in the Duluth News Tribune. More fleshed-out anecdotes (transcribed by multiple authors) appear in the The American Lumberman magazine beginning in 1910. The Lumberman articles also introduce Paul's ox Babe, who was originally pink but was quickly changed to blue. Pecos Bill first appeared in print in a 1917 magazine serial attributed to Edward S. O'Reilly; while Bill's stories were presented as traditions from Texas folklore, no pre-1917 attestation has ever been found, despite much research, so the magazine stories may have been invented by O'Reilly and others from whole cloth.
Bill tells Daniel a story about a man named Lanky Hank who was bounced by Widowmaker up to the Moon and had to be euthanized by shooting. This is a variation of a well-known Pecos Bill anecdote, but usually the victim is a woman, Slue-Foot Sue. In many versions, Sue is rescued.
In the bar when the drunk insults Texas in front of Pecos Bill, you can see a "Wanted Dead or Alive" poster for Daniel Hackett on the outside wall, just as the drunk goes through the window.