Sam Patch is one of those local legends that's just there, part of our early childhood storytelling world, like Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed... A couple of months ago, we heard a talk about Sam at the neighborhood library branch, setting the stories in historical reality. The circus-like character with the swashbuckling costume and the pet bear and the showy leaps, the character he presented on posters to advertise his famous jumps over waterfalls, was only the performance persona... He began jumping over waterfalls as part of a community of daredevil workers, young men showing off and letting off steam....