Home of the Hamburger

Residents of Seymour, Wis. (pop. 3,254), know how to make a great hamburger. They ought to: the classic American creation can trace its origins to the town, which proudly bills itself as the "Home of the Hamburger."

The distinction stems from Charlie Nagreen, who reportedly created the first hamburger there in 1885. Nagreen, who lived in nearby Hortonville, Wis., was only 15 years old when he came to the Outagamie County Fair, located on the outskirts of Seymour, and set up a food stand selling meatballs. Since meatballs can be difficult to eat while walking around, Nagreen flattened one in between two pieces of bread. He called his invention the "hamburger," after a German pressed meat product called Hamburg steak.

Today, the town celebrates that heritage annually with Hamburger Fest, scheduled for Aug. 6. To launch the inaugural festival in 1989, residents cooked the world’s largest hamburger—5,520 pounds of ground beef—using a specially constructed 24-square-foot propane gas grill. The feat required a brave volunteer to hang from a crane and season the meat with salt and pepper.

Seymour residents were so proud of their place in the Guinness Book of Records that in 1998, when the town of Saco, Mont. (pop. 250), bested their record with a 3-ton burger, townsfolk began preparations to reclaim their record.

"We waited until 2001 to come back with a 8,266-pounder to knock them out of the water," says Seymour resident Jim Campbell, director of quality assurance for nearby Green Bay, Wis.-based American Foods Group, whose company provides the meat for the town’s big burgers.

Larger burgers are in the festival’s future once someone figures out how to flip one over. "There are a couple of us who are frustrated engineers and are hoping to try it," Campbell adds. Last year, many of the festival’s 7,500 attendees sampled portions of a 60-pound patty.

Of course, the hamburger festival also is ripe with condiments, such as the Ketchup Slide. Young and old alike compete for bragging rights as they run and flop onto a 220-foot piece of hard plastic spread with ketchup and water. Creative cooks showcase their ingenuity in the Top Your Own Burger Contest by covering their patties with pineapple, potatoes and salsa.

Past festivals included the now discontinued Hamburger Olympics, which involved a grill and oversized bun toss. "We’ve gotten a bit more civil you’d say," says Bill Collar, a retired teacher and football coach at Seymour High School who portrays Charlie Nagreen during the festival. "The errant bun would go flying through the air and who knew where it would come down."

Collar says he’s proud to don the white apron and shirt, red suspenders and tie, and vintage white paper hat to portray local icon "Hamburger Charlie." He even resembles Nagreen a bit, says 88-year-old Violet Gauerke, Nagreen’s daughter, who served as grand marshal during last year’s festival parade.

"My father was well known at the Outagamie County Fairgrounds," says Gauerke, who likes her hamburgers well done with ketchup and pickles, just like her father used to make.

During Hamburger Fest and on Sundays from April to December, the Seymour Community Museum and the town’s old railroad depot—home to the Seymour Model Railroad Club—are open to the public. Both buildings house hamburger history and artifacts, such as vintage toys and clothes, photographs, wind-up hamburgers, stuffed burgers and worn condiment costumes that were part of previous hamburger parades.

The most popular artifacts on display are Nagreen’s butter pot, spatula and horseshoe. "Charlie would always put the horseshoe on (his county fair) tent facing down for good luck," says Rita Gosse, president of the Seymour Historical Society.

As to why the town goes to such lengths to celebrate its savory history, Seymour resident and festival griller Jim McMaster says it all: "Because we are the Home of the Hamburger."

For more information, log on to www.homeofthehamburger.com or call the Seymour Chamber of Commerce at (920) 833-6053.

Mary Lou Santovec is a writer from Jefferson, Wis.

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