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.
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