Frankenmuth, Michigan: a Bavarian town that took its look from 1959

By Ines Keane

Frankenmuth looks like a village in southern Germany. The facades are timber-framed, and Christmas lights go up on Main Street while the leaves are still turning. The surprise is how recent the look is. The settlers came in 1845. The Bavarian storefronts mostly came a century later.

Who came, and when

Atlas of Home, a heritage and travel site, says fifteen Franconian Lutherans sailed from Bremerhaven in April 1845 and reached the Saginaw Valley on August 18, 1845. The town’s own tourism board says it was settled by German missionaries.

Atlas of Home reads the name as “courage of the Franconians.”

According to Atlas of Home, German stayed the everyday language for roughly a century. Services at the town’s Lutheran church were held in German into the 1950s.

The year the town changed its face

Atlas of Home says that in 1959 a local hotel was reopened as the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn, with a Bavarian facade, after its owner toured Bavaria and Austria. It says the Bavarian Festival began the same year and is still held every June, and that by the 1980s downtown buildings had been remodeled in a Franconian timber-frame style.

Our reading: the town did not keep a European look from 1845. It chose one in 1959 and built it out over about thirty years. That is a more interesting story than a time capsule.

A covered bridge on the Cass River

Wikipedia describes a wooden covered bridge over the Cass River, completed in 1979 and about 239 feet (73 meters) long. Atlas of Home gives the dates as built in 1979 to 1980. We show both and do not choose.

The Christmas store

Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland was founded in 1945 by Wally Bronner, according to Wikipedia, Atlas Obscura and Atlas of Home. Atlas Obscura, a travel guide, calls it a year-round attraction on 27 acres and describes the building as “the size of five and a half football fields.” Atlas Obscura and Atlas of Home call it the world’s largest Christmas store; we report the billing and cannot test it.

The tourism board describes the town as “Christmastime all-year-long” and lists its first Christkindlmarkt in 2005. Atlas of Home says lights decorate Main Street from October through January.

Dates in order

1845: settlement; the ship Caroline leaves in April, and the party arrives in the Saginaw Valley on August 18, according to Atlas of Home.
1945: Bronner’s is founded.
\- 1959: Bavarian Inn facade and first Bavarian Festival, according to Atlas of Home.
2005: first Christkindlmarkt, according to the tourism board timeline.

Side by side

Question	Wikipedia	Atlas of Home	Tourism board
Who settled it	Lutheran immigrants from Franconia	Fifteen Franconian Lutherans	German missionaries
Arrival	About seven weeks after April 20	August 18, 1845	Not stated
Covered bridge	Completed 1979	Built 1979 to 1980	Not stated
Visitors	Bronner’s: over 2 million	Town: about 3 million	Not stated

What kind of sources these are

Atlas of Home is a heritage and travel site. Atlas Obscura is a travel guide. The tourism board promotes the town. No museum or archive page loaded, so the 1845 and 1959 dates rest on these four.

What we left out

The religious mission behind the colony and what the sources say about its aims, prices, hours, restaurant details and the population count.

Quick answers

When was Frankenmuth founded? Atlas of Home says 1845, by Franconian Lutheran settlers from Germany.

When did Frankenmuth become Bavarian-looking? According to Atlas of Home, in 1959, when a hotel reopened with a Bavarian facade and the first Bavarian Festival was held.

How big is Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland? Atlas Obscura describes the building as “the size of five and a half football fields” on 27 acres.

Roam first. Shop later.

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