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As folks in Pennsylvania waited for Punxsutawney Phil to predict the coming of spring on Feb. 2, folks in Snowflake enjoyed a free, hot breakfast complete with ground hog (sausage), hash browns, biscuits and gravy with plenty of hot chocolate to wash it down as a way to celebrate Ground Hog Day in a tradition that has been ongoing in Snowflake since 1951.
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This year in the early morning hours, with the sky still dark and the sun just starting to peek over the horizon, lines of people formed outside of the Snowflake High School cafeteria, patiently waited their turn. Inside the cafeteria, with the smell of cooked sausage and fresh biscuits filling the air, councilmen from the towns of Snowflake and Taylor along with the members of the Taylor-Snowflake Fire Department, piled the food on to the plates and handed out hot chocolate along with smiles and laughter.
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The Ground Hog Day breakfast was first started by S. Eugene Flake in 1951 when he cooked an outdoor cowboy breakfast for his family and friends in the ditch by his house. Over the last 61 years, the breakfast has gone from being cooked in that ditch, to being served at the city park and finally to the cafeteria, where an estimated 700 people ate breakfast this year.
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Barry Flake, whose father, Fost Flake, was a younger brother to Eugene, recalled those early days of the breakfast. “I remember as a kid we would be standing around in the cold on the street waiting for the fire to get hot and the food to cook,” recalled Barry. “The men would get cedar logs and build a fire in the ditch out in front Eugene’s house.”
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Barry said, “There was a smell of burning cedar mixed with sausage as the food was cooked in Dutch ovens over the open flames. And there was always hot chocolate to warm us up.”
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Marvin Peterson, who is a grandson of Eugene, said he remembered how after the breakfast was done, the men would dump the logs into the drainage ditch that ran nearby and the water would put the fire out. “I remember we would be out there early, before the sun would come up, to eat that breakfast.”
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Even though there was no scent of a cedar fire in the air, the folks who got up early enjoyed the hearty breakfast while visiting with friends and family. And while no one had to stand in the cold, the hot chocolate still flowed by the gallons.
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Fire Chief William Nelson said, “We served 24 gallons of gravy, 130 pounds of sausage, 200 pounds of potatoes that were turned into hash browns, 1,100 biscuits and 40 gallons of hot chocolate.”
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Nelson went on to share that Fire Department cooked the sausage, hash browns and gravy, while the Snowflake-Taylor Police Department cooked the biscuits. “It’s a really good event for everyone to get together on a non-emergency basis and just work together.”
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The Town of Snowflake sponsored the breakfast and this year the Snowflake Smokehouse donated sausage.
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