Seymour is a small town with a big claim to fame

The town of Seymour celebrated its 24th annual “Burger Fest.” The town, 15 miles west of Green Bay, bills itself as the birthplace of the hamburger. And people there mean it.

Residents of Seymour count Charlie Nagreen as their all-time most famous townsperson. It was at the 1885 Outagamie County fair when the 15 year old started hawking his flattened meatballs and christened them the “hamburger,”

John Steltz will portray Hamburger Charlie at burger fest this weekend. In real life he’s a high school English teacher.

Steltz says there is controversy surrounding Seymour’s claim to fame. Other cities also claim the title. In recent years Seymour went up against Hamburg New York. Contingents from both towns met in Akron, Ohio–neutral ground–and presented their cases to a neutral panel of judges. It was a hung jury.

But Steltz says Seymour won out in an internet vote. And he says Seymour is the only town with articles dating back to the time when Nagreen made his innovation.

Last weekend’s festivities included a 5-k bun run, a ketchup slide and what Steltz says is the world’s largest hamburger parade, “And somebody asked me the other day, ‘You mean to tell me there are other hamburger parades in the world?’ Well if there are, this is the largest. And then there’s the serving of the 150 pound cheeseburger at three o’clock.”

Burger Fest kicked off Friday night with a hot air balloon rally.