By KARI KRAMER | East Texas Edition

After photographing nearly 700 Texas hamburger joints, and sampling a variety of burgers, Rick Vanderpool, as an official ‘hambassador’ in Athens, gets ready to try yet another. -- Courtesy photo by John Pronk

June 8, 2006 - Hunt County photographer Rick Vanderpool, 57, just finished spending four months chewing on a piece of Texas culture: the hamburger.

Between January and April, Vanderpool, of Commerce, traveled 11,000 miles to photograph nearly 700 Texas hamburger joints. The endeavor required the use of 150 rolls of film.

Vanderpool has now used selected photographs from his journey to create the ultimate souvenir: a montage titled “The Hamburger - A Texas Original.”

Vanderpool has created several montages in the last few years detailing windmills, wildflowers, spurs, barbecue joints, and even the word “Texas.” Still, the idea for a montage of hamburger joints is not one Vanderpool takes credit for.

The latest montage by Rick Vanderpool is “The Hamburger - A Texas Original.” Vanderpool traveled 11,000 miles within four months to gain the photos for the poster. — Courtesy photo

“A good friend in Hurst, Jack Bible, suggested the idea one weekend I spent with him and his wife, Ricci,” he recalled. “I agreed it would make a very popular collection.

“Jack made me promise I would include him on a couple of the trips, given burgers are his passion.”

With a fresh idea in the making, Vanderpool approached the Visitor Initiative Program in Athens, a town known as the “Home of the Original Hamburger.” Each year the community holds Uncle Fletch’s Hamburger and Bar-B-Q Cook-Off. (Uncle Dave Fletch, from Athens, is credited with revealing the hamburger to the world at the 1904 World’s Fair). 

The idea of making a montage of burger joints was well received and the city agreed to commission Vanderpool to develop the montage. In a state with 254 counties and more than a 100 times that many burger joints, Vanderpool requested some help getting started.

More than 2,000 emails were sent to tourism directors, chamber of commerce offices, county Extension agents, county judges, and some of Vanderpool’s friends and customers.

“The response was overwhelming: A total of 700 joints, recommended by over 300 enthusiastic respondees, nearly all of whom have offered to buy me a burger at the joints they recommend,” Vanderpool said.

“The joints were recommended based on the local connection’s translation of my request for ‘the best mom and pop, old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness, real hamburger’ in their community or elsewhere.”

The response expanded the course of the hamburger project. “Instead of traveling to a couple hundred places, I did, indeed, travel to more than 600 and shot them all,” he said.

During his travels, Vanderpool was able to visit several unique hamburger joints, each with its own personality and claim to fame.

“Suffice it to say, the size and shape of the joints runs from tiny to large, from drive-in only to seating for a hundred or more, and from over 100-years-old to less than a decade in existence,” explained Vanderpool.

One location still stands out in his mind.

“Only one establishment is actually shaped like a burger - the building for JoJo’s Drive-In in Odessa.”

Vanderpool sampled nearly four dozen burgers throughout his journey. Some claimed to be the “Best Hamburgers in Texas” while others deemed themselves “World Famous.” But, don’t ask him which was his favorite.

“When folks ask me to tell them my favorite, I simple say, ‘Go ahead, grill me all you want, I’ll never divulge my favorite,’” he said.

Vanderpool plans on sampling a few more burgers over the next 12 to 18 months as he works on his Texas Hamburger Book. In the book, Vanderpool will not only provide more photographs, but will also detail his travels and the stories he collected on his burger-induced journey. In addition he will plans to devote a chapter on what truly defines an “old-fashioned” burger.

Vanderpool has written other books that complement his montages, and he said he quickly discovered the hamburger carried enough importance in Texas to have a book of its own.

He noted there were “many, many interesting stories from the journey, but even more from the network of folks who made the recommendations.

“Their stories are really what inspired me to keep a journal for the book, and made me certain about the existence of a Texas Hamburger Culture.”

Vanderpool said Texans seem to have a special tie to the cook-out favorite.

“Texas actually has a ‘hamburger culture,’” he explained. “It seems to be even more popular a food item than barbecue.

“I think the reason that hamburgers are perhaps even more ‘grass roots’ and popular than barbecue - even in Texas - is the fact that most folks believe they make a great hamburger.”

Many of those folks will likely be present in Athens the weekend of June 9-10 at the Lake Athens Marina for Uncle Fletch’s Burger and Bar-B-Q Cook-Off. There, in addition to competing for cooking titles, they will have the opportunity to see Vanderpool’s hamburger montage.

“I’m looking forward to attending my first cook-off,” said Vanderpool of the event. “The montage will actually be formally premiered at this year’s event.”

The poster-size montage, which contains photographs of 351 hamburger joints and lists nearly 100 more around the montage border, will be available to the general public once it is introduced at the festival.

Vanderpool, who likes old-fashioned style burgers, has become somewhat of a hamburger connoisseur. He was even dubbed a “hambassador” by the mayor of Athens. And while he won’t reveal his favorite, he narrowed it down a bit.

“No chains, not even the Texas originals,” he said. “Life is too short to eat a chain burger.”

Vanderpool’s art is available at several locations throughout the state including the State History Museum Gift Shop in Austin and the Texas Rangers Museum Gift Shop in Waco. Samples of his art can be viewed at PraireRoseStudio.net and he can be reached at 903-450-6800.