"Franconian joy" — a sister colony to Frankenmuth

Frankenlust has a memorable name with a plain translation. Michigan’s historical marker says Pastor Ferdinand Sievers and 14 immigrants from Franconia founded the colony in June 1848 and established St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church. They built the name from their homeland and the German word lust, meaning joy: “Joy of the Franconians.”

The marker identifies Frankenlust as one of four Michigan colonies settled by people from Franconia. Here, settlers built homes along Squaconning Creek, cleared land for farms, and put up a log church in 1849. The settlement became Frankenlust Township in 1881. The first two church buildings are gone, but St. Paul’s 1905 church still stands beside the cemetery where some of the earliest settlers are buried. The congregation remains active today.