Bringing Turkey to the American Table

Turkey Trots: The fascinating history of bringing turkey to the American table

Eating turkey in North America and Europe.

From: Pierre Belon, L’histoire de la nature de la nature des oyseaux (1555). (Photo credit: LSU Libraries.)

Turkey became a staple food for many Americans as early as the 18th century. While not as common, Tom Turkey graced the tables of North American colonists and Europeans even before then. In fact, according to the University of Illinois, 16th-century Spanish explorers and conquistadors encountered domesticated turkeys during their time in Mexico. These men brought the turkeys back to Europe in 1519, where their popularity spread across the continent. Turkey arrived in England, and, perhaps, on the tables of future New Englanders in 1524.

Getting Tom to the table.

Getting a turkey for our Thanksgiving or Christmas table no longer requires a transatlantic voyage. It can be as simple as visiting the frozen foods section of your local grocery store. However, the refrigerated trucks used to transport frozen birds to contemporary stores and markets were only invented in the 1920s.

So, how did people living in Boston, New York, or Amesbury get their hands on tasty Tom Turkey before then?

It may surprise you to learn that the turkeys walked. They were spurred on by “drovers” just like cattle on a cattle drive. Some of these turkeys were driven over 1,000 miles.

The turkey trot in Cuero, Texas, c. 1913. (Photo credit: Texas State Archive / Public Domain.)

Turkey Drives in New England.

By the early 19th century, farmers all over New England provided much of the foodstuffs needed in growing cities and towns like Boston, Worcester, and Lowell. Most of the turkeys raised for market spent their early lives in Vermont.

The turkeys had to arrive alive so that they were fresh and safe to eat. The only real option was to walk with them to market, slowly, day after day. Wagons, carrying tents and supplies, including food for people and birds, had to drive alongside the drovers and the waddling animals.

A young girl in Vermont enjoys turkey driving in a unique way. (Photo credit: The Library of Congress.)

While this seems like a massive trek to us today, in the years before trains these long walks were far from unusual. As you dig in this holiday season, consider all the extra work our ancestors endured just to get food to the market and to the table.

Did you know?

The pilgrims arrived with turkeys they brought with them from England when they landed in New England in 1620.