Welcome to Kenmare

Feature Stories (Vol. 109 No. 44--10/31/2007)

Event features the "Best Meal in N.D."

By Caroline Downs

Kenmare residents and visitors celebrated the 19th annual GooseFest in grand style last week.

Wednesday’s Wild Game Feed again featured a savory array of upland birds, waterfowl and big game prepared by local cooks. Rod Stone, of Sacramento, CA, and one of the biggest fans of the meal, was one of the first diners in line. He came prepared with an oversized green plastic plate.

"All year long, this is the best meal in North Dakota!" he said.

He made sure to arrive early for the supper, then surveyed the roasters with a notebook in hand and listed all the meats he intended to sample. When he went through the line, he divided the space on his plate with dollops of mashed potatoes before accepting helpings of the meats.

"I write down all the labels," Stone said. "I number them and keep track of where everything goes on my plate, to give it justice."

Stone is retired, but his wife is a professor at Minot State University and the two divide their time between North Dakota and California. Stone makes sure to plan his autumn visits to Minot to coincide with the GooseFest Wild Game Feed.

"I’ve been here probably a dozen times," he said. "The first time I came, it was because I saw the [GooseFest] ad."

He and his wife generally invite friends to make the drive to Kenmare, too. This year, their guests included MSU professors originally from Morocco and Columbia.

Stone grew up hunting with his father in California and Texas, and enjoys eating wild game. He praised all the cooks who contributed to the 2007 Feed, but he rated Tina Zietz’s bear roast as his favorite this year. "I love her bear," he said. "Every time I have bear meat, it’s my favorite."

While Stone and Zietz compared notes on cooking bear, the evening’s emcee Jerry Essler started the proceedings for the Goose Hunters Hall of Fame induction by recognizing all the former inductees who were present at the dinner and then reading the names of those who were absent.

The 2007 inductees--Dennis, Leon, Steven, Jeff, Philip and Mike Essler--were introduced next, with Jerry Essler mentioning the fact the brothers had won the GooseFest Goose Shoot seven times. He also joked about growing up as one of the brothers’ cousins. "If you were going hunting with them, you never got to take just one of them," he said. "There was always another one tagging along."

He continued by saying he always knows how the brothers are doing for geese, thanks to their father, Felix Essler. "Felix stops by the [Farmers Union Insurance] office," Jerry said, as the audience laughed, "and gives me the running count, fall and spring!"

Philip and Mike Essler were unable to attend the ceremony, but the other four Essler brothers surrounded the podium and spoke briefly about the induction.

Dennis started with an apology for the brothers’ late arrival to the Wild Game Feed, explaining he had not been able to resist a field of Canada geese near Rugby on his drive to Kenmare from Rochester, MN, that day. He stopped and shot 10 geese, then finished the drive, cleaned the birds and got himself ready for the Wild Game Feed. "Even on the way up, I had to hunt!" he said.

He turned serious then and spoke about the significance of the Hall of Fame induction. "Hunting with family and friends is why we hunt, not so much the hunt itself," he said. "This is an honor all of us brothers will cherish."

A few hunting stories were related, including Dennis’s description of how the Essler brothers never seem to learn their lesson about driving across mud, regardless of their age, and Steven’s explanation about how to shoot "half a honker."

Steven also made a point to thank the Kenmare GooseFest committee for holding the week-long event each year. "You’re passing the [hunting] tradition on to other generations," he said.

Leon agreed with Dennis’s comments about the importance of hunting with the family. "It’s always a great thing to come up here and get the boys back together, and tell them how to hunt again!" he said, with a grin.

Jeff started by joking about his brothers’ team doing their part to reduce the snow goose population and serving as fund-raisers during the hunters’ calcutta each year. Then, like his brothers, he referred to the evening’s ceremony. "It’s a true pleasure, a true honor, to be inducted into the Hall of Fame," he said, listing several former inductees including Arlen Gartner, Allan Essler and Don Harris. "We’re in pretty good company."

GooseFest continued Thursday with the sporting clay shoot outdoors all day and the laser shot simulation indoors that night, but the activity really heated up Friday with the Chili Cookoff, held under the oversized tent at the Pizza Hub.

Ground peppers spiced the air for a two-block radius in the afternoon sunshine, and the electric board designed specifically for the event safely held the plugs to dozens of extension cords while teams worked over their chili pots.

As usual, several groups tried to outdo each other with gimmicks, including the pirate costumes from the Kenmare Dental Clinic team, the boxing ring designed by the Punch Drunk Chili Team, the actual sand "beach" created by the Beach Babes team, and the strands of green and purple beads handed out by the Mardi Gras Chili team.

Instead of wild costumes and souvenirs, the Red Hot Chili Tellers of Town & Country Credit Union relied on their slogan, "We give gas for cash." And some teams, like Dog Pound Chili, simply allowed their reputations to speak for themselves, backed up by a line of gleaming trophies won in past cook-offs.

Most contestants live in the immediate vicinity, but a group from Wisconsin was especially welcomed at the event. Gary Dodd, Jerry Schmoker, Clint Thull and Mark "Goose Nazi" Vander Zanden hail from the Oshkosh, WI, area.

Dodd has entered the chili contest seven years, with various hunters who have accompanied him from Wisconsin. "We come for GooseFest all the time. This is a ball," he said, then grinned. "Actually, we come thirteen hours for the chili cookoff!"

He also packed a distinctive gift for his Kenmare friends and area landowners, with samples of cheddar and pepperjack sitting next to his chili roaster. "We brought thirty to forty pounds of authentic Wisconsin cheese for people this year!" he said.

Whether its cheese or chili, goose hunting or getting families together, movie matinees or Goose-on-the-Loose, wildlife art or raffle ticket mania, the Kenmare GooseFest has something for everybody. Plans are already underway for the 20th bash next year, so mark your calendars now for the fourth week in October 2008 and celebrate in Kenmare!