1859 Sept | Oct 2012_opt

Around Oregon
from where i stand
Mount Angel
Small-town Germany and big-time
Oktoberfest define Oregons ount Angel
written by Megan Oliver
photo by Jarib Porter
Mount Angel Sausage Co. owner,
Jim Hoke, on the deck of his
Bavarian-inspired business.
OOM-PAH-PAH MUSIC SAUNTERS OVER on the low beats of tubas—including
Germany’s own Donaumusikanten band—and keeps feet a-tappin’
all day and long into the night. Festival-goers donning dirndls eat schnitzel,
gather in the biergarten and weingarten and partake in massive spontaneous
renditions of the now-traditional chicken dance of Oktoberfest.
Every September, a Bavarian buzz envelopes Mount Angel’s Oktoberfest.
“You really don’t understand Oktoberfest ‘til you come,” says Jim Hoke,
owner of Mount Angel Sausage Company. Indeed, Mount Angel is best seen
through the prism of Oktoberfest. Families open their land to strangers for
camping, and everyone in town pitches in to help with the festival. “It’s a surreal
experience for newcomers,” adds Hoke. Witty and foul-mouthed with a
touch of circumspect philosopher, Hoke embodies the cheerful yet profound
ardor of Mount Angel.
It is here in the tiny town of Mount Angel that you will drink in solidarity
with more than 350,000 Oktoberfest revelers from around the world at one of
the top Oktoberfests outside of Germany. For a town of just more than 3,000
full-time residents, this is quite the feat. Even when Oktoberfest is not on tap,
it is not unusual to see people strolling around town in lederhosen or dirndls,
says Jerry Lauzen, himself clad in lederhosen one summer afternoon.
The original home of Oktoberfest is Bavaria, the largest state in Germany,
with Munich and its Hofbräuhaus at its center. Though only celebrating its
forty-seventh year in its German form, a harvest celebration has taken place
in Mount Angel since 1878, when flax was the primary crop. After World War
II, the United States demand for flax waned—and so did the harvest celebrations.
Dairies replaced flax farms and Dairy Days became the main event.
That, too, was short-lived because knocking back glasses of whole milk didn’t
really stoke the fires of jubilation.
Finally in 1966, the town with strong Bavarian roots came full circle with a
true Oktoberfest tradition. Paul deShaw, a local Bavarian chalet owner, was
the brains of the operation. His motto: “delivering happiness,” is a phrase that
well suits festival-goers and organizers to this day.
Traditional German beers with consonant-heavy names flow like water around
town. American Hefeweizen holds its own, too. Shockingly, in a state of microbreweries,
there is no local Mount Angel brew (apart from root beer-maker,
Mount Angel Brewing Company). There is, however, sausage.
Mount Angel Sausage Co. founder, Hoke, started his business in an old warehouse
twelve years ago after a visit to Oktoberfest from his home in Salem. “I nearly
fell over when I realized there was no sausage in a Bavarian town,” he says
of Mount Angel. With the help of his son, James Jr., Hoke has transformed
the building into a huge pub and sausage distributor. The younger Hoke is
2 1859 oregon's mAgAzine SP 2012