As we enter the holiday season, you may be enjoying traditions like running Salem’s annual Turkey Trot, in addition to sharing a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Looking into the recent history of this Turkey Trot run tradition, I discovered that Salem’s first Turkey Trot Fun Run was sponsored by the Salem Track Club and was held at Bush’s Pasture Park in November 2002. It included a canned food drive.  One of the most popular Oregon events has been the Turkey Trot at the Oregon Zoo which has been held since 2006 and starts in the early morning with a run to the Rose Garden.  This year, the City of Salem Parks and Recreation Department sponsored their annual Turkey Trot on Saturday, Nov. 23, starting at Riverfront Park pavilion. The very first Turkey Trot run in the United States was initially known as the Thanksgiving Day Run. It was held in Buffalo, New York in 1896, one year before the Boston Marathon. That year there were only six runners. It is the oldest consecutively run footrace in the world, and it has grown significantly since 1896 with 14,000 runners participating last year.  This year they are hosting their 129th annual Turkey Trot. Beginning in the late 1920s and early 1930s the Oregon Statesman and Capitol Journal began reporting about a different kind of “turkey-trot,” held before Thanksgiving in towns around the country where turkeys were raised. Cuero, south Texas, the town that called itself the “Turkey Capital of the Universe” hosted a Turkey Trot — a “fantastic parade” of gobbling colorful birds which were marched through town on their way to the railroad shipping coops, where they would head to markets across the country to be sold to families for their Thanksgiving holiday celebrations.  During the 1930s the Salem Junior Woman’s Club began sponsoring an annual dance called the “Turkey Trot” on Thanksgiving night, beginning a Willamette Valley tradition of turkey trot-themed dances in November. The Oregon Statesman reported “turkey trot” holiday dances through the 1960s in Salem and all throughout the Willamette Valley. Sheet music for a “Turkey Trot” dance number. Turkey farming outside of Salem and throughout Yamhill County grew to be a productive agricultural industry during the 1920s. By 1930 Oregon was the sixth highest producer of turkeys in the United States.  In 1938, the Oregon Turkey Improvement Association was established to help support Oregon farmers raising turkeys. The association established the annual Pacific Coast Turkey exhibit in McMinnville. The exhibit included a turkey dinner and a turkey trot dance, which was held in mid-November near Thanksgiving. This exhibit included speakers from across the country as part of the” turkey talk” and was intended to encourage all turkey growers to exhibit their birds in competition with other turkey raisers. Winners were selected in the categories of grand champion live bird and grand champion dressed bird of the show.  The Oregon Statesman reported that Oregon farmers developed an increased interest in raising turkeys and their turkey crop had increased 20% in the years after the Oregon Turkey Improvement Association had been established. In 1961 the event was moved to the summer and renamed “Turkeyrama.” It grew to feature a grand parade, food and other events including the biggest turkey contest. Starting in the 1990s Turkey Trot runs began replacing the dance as part of the Turkeyrama celebration. The festival lasted for 61 years, with the last Turkeyrama held in 2022. A McMinnville Turkeyrama flyer from 2014. As I looked into the history of the Turkey Trot a bit more, I was surprised to discover that there was a scandalous history associated with it that had nothing to do with Thanksgiving or running.   In the early 1900s there were a number of animal dances that became popular with young people, which were initially performed on the stage to fast ragtime music. There was the bunny hug, the grizzly bear, the fox trot and the turkey trot.  The turkey trot consisted of four hopping steps sideways with feet apart, first on one leg then the other, while rising on the ball of the foot. That was followed by a drop in the heel which was intended to mimic the short jerky steps of a turkey. The dance included scissor-like flicks of the feet and fast trotting actions. Dancers would also flap their arms, imitating the flapping wings of a bird. An Italian diagram explains the steps of the “turkey trot.” In Salem, people were first exposed to the dance at a show called the “Flirting Princess” which opened at the Grand Opera House on Oct. 14, 1911. The show featured a disguised American girl who danced the Egyptian turkey trot with men who flirted with her.  Many religious groups and conservatives felt the dance was scandalous and that young people shouldn’t be allowed to dance it, or any of the other animal dances because they were immoral and allowed too close physical contact between dancers.  The Oregon Statesman reported in January 1912 that the city of Des Moines, Iowa passed an ordinance requiring police to attend all dances, stating that all persons dancing the “turkey trot” (or other animal dances) in public halls would be arrested.   In 1913, this kind of dance was banned at the Naval Academy. President-elect Woodrow Wilson, fearing a scandal if people danced the turkey trot at his inaugural ball that same year, decided not to have a ball at all. In 1920 Klamath Falls, Oregon passed an ordinance outlawing the turkey trot and the bunny hug dances. To learn more about the scandals of the turkey trot, and to listen to an audio file of ragtime music, “The Grizzley-Turkey Trot” visit the Library of Congress blog. To see an example of the dance (a combination of the grizzly bear and the turkey trot) see the video shared by Forrest Outman. STORY TIP OR IDEA? Send an email to Salem Reporter’s news team: [email protected]. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post COLUMN: Before it was a fun run, the “turkey trot” had a more controversial history appeared first on Salem Reporter.