Frankenmuth, Michigan's Little Bavaria

Frankenmuth really was settled by Bavarians. In 1845 a small band of German Lutherans from the Franconia region of Bavaria came to the Cass River to start a church colony and minister to the local Native Americans. The name itself means “courage of the Franconians.” For its first century it was a quiet German farming town known for its sausage, cheese, and beer.

The Bavarian-village look you see today — the timber-framed buildings, the flower baskets, the polka — came later, when the town leaned into its heritage in the 1950s to draw visitors. It worked: Frankenmuth is now one of Michigan’s most-visited towns. People come for the all-you-can-eat family-style chicken dinners at Zehnder’s and the Bavarian Inn (two of the biggest restaurants in the country, facing each other across Main Street), for Oktoberfest and the summer Bavarian Festival, and to stroll across the covered wooden bridge over the Cass River. It feels a little like leaving the state without a passport.