Let’s Talk Turkey

Question: The golden-brown turkey that graces almost every Thanksgiving table has its origins in which country: Mexico, the United States, or Turkey?

Answer: All of them

Before crying "fowl," consider the evidence.

According to archaeological records, turkeys have been trotting around the North American continent for some 10 million years. So how could that plump lovable bird that graces the Thanksgiving table also have origins in Turkey, of all places?!

The simple answer is that it’s complicated.

Wild American turkeys were an important food source of the Aztecs, who tamed the fowl they called huexoloti in their native language (or guajolote in Spanish). Then, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus showed up in the "New World," planting the flag of Christian Spain on American soil. He had been hoping to return to Spain with his ships laden with spices and gold following his discovery of a new trade route to India. That didn’t happen, of course, so he did the next best thing—filling his holds with plants and animals domesticated by Native Americans that he hoped might please his investors. Along with beans, maize, potatoes, and tobacco, the passenger list for the return voyage included plenty of Aztec huexoloti.

With Spain at war with most of Europe at the time, and Iberian ports closed to rival nations, it should have been easy to keep the goods imported from the "New World" away from prying eyes. But the seafaring trade in the Mediterranean had been going on for thousands of years, and in no time at all (some say before the first ship was even unloaded), samples of the New World treasure—including the huexoloti—made their way to ports-of-call throughout the Mediterranean, including the heart of the powerful Ottoman Empire. Turks, who possessed the most advanced farming and husbandry skills in the world at the time, were already familiar with pheasants from China and Guinea fowls from Africa and were quite impressed with the Aztec huexoloti—and went right to work plumping it up and improving it.

By the middle of the 16th century, Turkey began exporting many of these "new and improved" birds and plants across Europe—now with names like Turkish corn or Turkish tobacco. The huexoloti, which was simply referred to as a Turkey, was a huge hit in England and quickly became their most consumed fowl in the entire English realm.

When English settlers arrived in Virginia and Massachusetts, they weren’t interested in the wild American "turkeys" (called silvestris, which were very similar to huexoloti). In fact, early farmers would often kill the scrawny scavengers that were helping themselves to their crops as nuisance birds. What they wanted was the well-behaved, plump birds they were familiar with back in dear old England—Turkeys. So, they began importing English "turkeys from Turkey" which quickly spread throughout the colonies.

Instead of nuisance birds, the new turkeys from Turkey also became a farmer’s best friend—at least in the southern colonies, where tobacco was emerging the first cash crop. Instead of ruining their crops, the mild-mannered birds ignored the tobacco and focused their voracious appetite on the pests that preyed on the plants.

And what about "the first Thanksgiving," that iconic 1621 meal between the British settlers and indigenous Wampanoag? If wild American turkey was on the menu during that three-day celebration, it certainly wouldn’t have been the centerpiece. The hospitable natives welcomed the English immigrants with venison (five of them), corn, and oysters, which were all staples of the Wampanoag diet.

For a bird that doesn’t fly, turkeys sure got around. The Aztecs domesticated them. The Spaniards took them to Europe. Islamic traders brought them to Turkey. The Turks fattened them up for export. The English couldn’t get enough of them. And English settlers in America simply had to have them, tossing aside their wild American cousins.

Whatever its origins, Benjamin Franklin considered the turkey so authentically American that it was more worthy of being named our national bird than the eagle. Whether his suggestion was half in jest or not, the turkey has grown to become the symbol and centerpiece for the most cherished of all the American holidays.

Here are a few Thanksgiving leftovers you may not know:

• You always remember your first: While it’s widely accepted that the 1621 sit-down between the Pilgrims and Native Americans was "the first Thanksgiving," some historians beg to differ. They point to Juan Ponce De Leon’s landing in Florida in 1513, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado’s service of Thanksgiving in the Texas Panhandle in 1541, and Thanksgiving observances that took place in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and 1610.


• No fighting at the table: While George Washington revived the holiday tradition by designating special days to celebrate Thanksgiving, it wasn’t made official until President Abraham Lincoln that Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday to be held on the last Thursday in November of 1863—during the height of the Civil War.


• Mary had a little lamb, and then some turkey: Through numerous letters and articles, Sarah Joseph Hale, composer of the classic children’s song, "Mary Had a Little Lamb," was instrumental in convincing Abraham Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.


• Let’s make it official again, shall we: When Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official national holiday in 1863, it was to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. During Franklin Roosevelt’s first year in the White House, however, the last Thursday—November 30, 1933—happened to fall on the fifth Thursday of that month. This late date didn’t please the Depression-ravaged business community, who knew that most people didn’t start Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving and felt that the fewer holiday shopping days would cut into their profits. FDR continued the "last Thursday in November" tradition until 1939, when he moved Thanksgiving to November 23. That didn’t work either, as some states celebrated on the 30th and others celebrated "Franksgiving" on the 23rd. Congress finally passed a law making the fourth Thursday of November the official Thanksgiving for every year.


• What happened to all those pardoned turkeys? President George H.W. Bush began the annual tradition of saving a turkey from the chopping block with a presidential pardon in 1989. The 2005 and 2013 pardoned turkeys went on to serve as grand marshals in annual Thanksgiving Day parades at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. And the 2010 and 2013 turkeys vacationed at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate.


• Is this really something we should be thankful for? After an employee of Swanson mistakenly ordered way too much turkey—260 tons of it—to fulfill the anticipated Thanksgiving rush, sales rep Gerry Thomas suggested putting it in aluminum trays with some dressing, gravy, peas, and sweet potatoes for a quick and easy meal. Costing just 98 cents, they sold 10 million of them that year—the first "TV dinners."


• Not everybody loves a parade: Originally called the Macy’s Christmas Parade, the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debuted in 1924. A promotional gimmick to recognize the expansion of the retail giant’s flagship Manhattan store, it mostly featured Macy’s employees and no floats or balloons—but according to the New York Times, some "bears, elephants, and donkeys" from the Central Park Zoo showed up. The parade grew in size each year until World War II, when it was cancelled between 1942 and 1944 due to helium and rubber shortages.
  
  For several years, Macy’s famous balloons were released into the air after the parade ended—but beginning in 1928, they offered a $100 reward to get them back. This created a mad scramble to recover them, of course, along with pushing, shoving, and fist fights—not unlike today’s Black Friday crowds. The practice ended in 1932 after a student pilot narrowly escaped a crash landing while attempting to retrieve one of the balloons in mid-air.

Discover the land that gave turkeys their name on our Turkey’s Magical Hideaways adventure.