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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1956)
SIX MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE Wednttday. Jun 6. 19S6 Michigan Hctel Serves Meals in Bavarian Custom Frankenmuth, Mich. UP Shortly after World War II, a man walked into one of the t '.ree hotels in this village. He signed the reaister and gave Hong Kong as his home address. " You know, it was while I was interned in a Jaoanese pri- n camp that I first heard about Frankenmuth and the chicken dinners served here,"' he said. "I told myself that as so'm as I was free I would come over here and see if it's true that you are served all you can eat." He found out it was true, just as countless people have been finding out for the past century. Waitresses keep all dishes heap ing full, and the meal ends only whe-i the diner has reached or exceeded his capaciiy. Big Meals Tradition Meals big and flavorsome are a tradition that the pioneers of Frankenmuth brought with them from their native Bavaria in the middle of the 19th century. The settlement was made as a missionary effort. Anxious to convert the Indian to Christian ity, a Lutheran parish in Ger many decided to send not only a missionary but a whole con gregation to the new world so that the natives could see reli gion in everyday action. The Indians soon moved northwest, crowded out by the while man. But the Bavarian - pioneers remained to make their township one of the most fer tile in ihe country. Conserva tion experts consider the land more fertile today than when the virgin soil was first plowed and thank good agricultural practices for that. The village utilized other Ba varian skills, too. Today it has two large breweries that use old German recipes, two precision tool plants where traditional German skills are displayed and two large insurance firms which were begun as informal, neigh borhood groups to practice the virtues of German thrift. Hotil Brok' Journ.y One of the early business places was a tiny hotel which broke the arduous journey be tween Flint and Saginaw, now both automobile centers. Not only did weary travelers wel come the rest, they enjoyed the i meals that were served on a ; scale that was large even by the , generous standards of the tim bcrland frontier. Word spread, and people made the trip by horse and buggy and bicycles. Business grew slowly but steadily. Then, with the advent of the automobile, the whole state of Michigan discovered Franken muth. In 1928. William Zehnder traded a 120-acre farm for the Exchange Hotel and began a family operation that continues today as a team effort by his seven children. The little hotel, now known as Zehnder's, began to expand by a scries of addi-1 tions. but always the "original room" where the first dinners were served was preserved, and today it is still used for private parties. All You Can Eat Two other hotels also serve meals on an all-you-tan-eat ba sis. Over a typical soring week end they will serve 13.000 meals ; this in a village of only 1,300. Visitors come from all over the United States and "Franken-muth-style chicken dinners" can be seen advertised as far away as California and Florida. Mass production methods are used in the most modern kitch-; ens, gleaming in porcelain and stainless steel. But all food is prepared immediately before serving, and even epicures can- Man Killed as Truck Hils Passenger Train Tendlcton UP.1 A. T. Haun, 60-year-old dairy farmer from Lowden, Wash., was kill ed yesterday afternoon when his pickup truck struck a Union Pa cific passenger train near Herm iston. Officers said that Haun was returning from a weekly live stock auction at Westland when his empty pickup truck crashed into the Union Pacific's west bound passenger train at the Westland crossing about three miles south west of Hermiston. Haun had apparently applied the brakes about 40 feet from the crossing but was unable to stop, officers said. not tell the difference between it and the food cooked in 'a fam ily kitchen. .Frankenmuth s Bavarian heri tage is demonstrated by the bustling waitresses who refuse to allow a plate to become empty and who look hurt when the guest admits that he hasn't left room for dessert. Not only are they a buxom and blonde as j Rhineland maidens, but they re tain their Bavarian accent and are wont to lapse into their own j tongue when they return to the kitchen. That language is a mixture of German. Bavarian dialect and English and the re sult is as distinctive and sounds much like P ennsylvania Dutch. Frankenmuthers have retain ed their traditional Bavarian in dependence and self-reliance. When U.S. Army Engineers' plans for flood control on the Cass river were shelved, the vil lage went ahead and built its own dikes to solve a recurring flood problem. Informed that such action would jeopardize their share of any appropria tions Congress might make in the future, the villagers in formed Washington that they have never thought about fed eral aid, that they preferred paying their own way. Its village government is held up as a model: it is a miniature city manager set-up without the formality of the title. Its town ship taxes are always paid in full and are always the first to be turned over to the county treasurer. Its schools, both pub lic and parochial are big and new. Its two Lutheran churches are flourishing, and the commu nity has sent more young men into the ministry or parish teach ing profession than any place 20 times its size. But it is its chicken dinners that have given Frankenmuth its widest fame. This is the cen tennial year of the original Ex change Hotel, but no special ob servance is planned. Everything will be as normal, including the exhortation: ''Eat all you can!" RECEIVING BOUQUETS from Soviet pioneers at Kishi nev station (Kishinev is capital of Moldavia), President Tito of Yugoslavia is welcomed to Russia for his historic talks with Bulganin and Khrushchev. (International) Emergency Board Studies Salem (U.PJ Members of the State Emergency Board yester day inspected the 492-acre Wil sonville site for the state's new $14,000,000 mental hospital and discussed its possibilities with Architect Glenn Stanton of Portland. Mental Hospital Site Board members, who appear ed favorably impressed with the site, were scheduled to meet lat er today to act on purchase of the site for $243,886. It has al ready been approved by the State Board of Control. MAPLE FURNITURE and LAMPS WHERE YOU GET THE BIG TRADE" Open Every Wednesday Until 9 P.M. NOW . . . CHECK THESE LOW PRICES and SAVE DURING HOME APPLIANCE'S BIG SPRING CLEARANCE SALE! YOU MUST BE SATISFIED OR YOUR MONEY BACK! 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