According to legend,in the summer of 1885 a 15-year-old Hortonville boy named Charlie Nagreenhitched a yoke of oxen and traveled 20 miles north to Seymour’s fair to sell meatballs made ofground beef and onion. He predicted that fairgoers would work up an appetite asthey walked from exhibit to exhibit, checking out the new labor-saving farmmachinery, prize livestock and award-winning produce. Charlie found, however,that visitors didn’t want to stop and sit for a meal of messy meatballs, atrend reflected in his mediocre sales. So he did what resourceful entrepreneursdo and adapted. He procured some bread and then flattened the meatballs betweentwo slices so people could walk and eat at the same time.
In Atlas of Popular Culture in the NortheasternUnited States, John E. Harmon explains that the origin of ground beefemerged with the nomadic Tatar people of the Central Asian steppes, when theyshredded low-quality cattle beef to make it more edible and digestible.“[Russian Tatars], possibly through other peoples in the Baltics, introduced itto Germanybefore the 14th century,” Harmon writes. “The Germans flavored it with regionalspices and either cooked it or ate it raw. It became a standard meal for poorerclasses and in Hamburg acquired the name ‘Hamburg steak.’”
According to aninterview with Emil Wurm, an employee who worked for Nagreen from 1917 to 1923,“Charlie said he was the first to call ground beef in a bun a ‘hamburger’”anddid so because the dairy community’s large German population would recognizethe name. Nagreen returned to the Seymour fairfor the next 65 years, and also served his popular hamburgers at fairs in Green Bay, Oshkosh,Shawano and Weyauwega, among others.
In 1989, the proudpeople of Seymourhosted the first Burger Fest to celebrate their claim to burger fame. That yearthe festival served the world’s biggest hamburger, a whopping 5,520-poundbehemoth that was so large a man had to swing above the beef patty in order toseason it. The hamburger hamlet lost the title in 1999 to the Sleeping Buffaloresort in Saco, Mont., but regained it in 2001 with an8,266-pound winner.
This year’s BurgerFest begins on Friday, Aug. 6, when 25 hot-air balloons take to the sky at 6p.m. Two hours later, the balloons are lighted from within for the balloonglow. Saturday hosts the bulk of Burger Fest’s main activities, including anumber of family-friendly events such as the Bun Run, a car show, a parade, aweight-lifting competition and a charity motorcycle ride. No Burger Fest wouldbe complete without the hamburger-eating and build-a-burger contests, alongwith the ketchup slide, a crowd favorite that involves participants riding downa slide lubricated with ketchup.
Price of admission: $3 in advance and $5 day ofevent. For more information, visit www.homeofthehamburger.org.
