"Franconian joy" — a sister colony to Frankenmuth

Frankenlust Township has one of the more charming names in Michigan, and a history to match. In 1848, a group of German Lutherans from Franconia, in Bavaria, came here with their pastor, Ferdinand Sievers, cleared the land, and started farms and a church. They named their new home by joining “Franken” — for their homeland — with the German word lust, meaning joy. So the name means something like “joy of the Franconians.”

They weren’t the only ones. Frankenlust was one of four German Lutheran colonies planted in the Saginaw Valley around the same time, all organized by the same church mission back in Bavaria. The most famous of the four is Frankenmuth, the Bavarian-themed tourist town to the south — Frankenlust was a quieter, farming version of the same idea. The old village mostly faded away, but the township still carries the name, and the Lutheran churches its settlers built are still standing along the country roads.