Jomoud's Fotothing

Our holiday trip
Day 5
FRANKENMUTH, Michigan

The covered bridge of Frankenmuth

The city of Frankenmuth, a curious combination of Old and New World culture, was founded in 1845 by a band of Bavarian settlers who came here for a new home and to convert the Indians to Christianity. But it wasn't until more than a century later that the town dug back into its own history for an identity that turned it into one of Michigans top tourist attractions.
The original settlers built a log church in a forest clearing near Saginaw and Bay City and called their settlement "Frankenmuth or "Courage of the Franks".
By 1915 the chicken dinner was already a Frankenmuth tradition at the Fischer Hotel, and by the 1940s several thousand hungry diners would travel to Frankenmuth each weekend for the "all you can eat" dinners at the hotel and at Zehnder's restaurant across the street..
But in 1958 the Fischer Hotel found itself in financial difficulties. Wally Bronner, a local sign painter, suggested the hotel adopt a Bavarian look. The Fischer was remodeled and the name changed to the "Bavarian Inn". It was so successful that other businesses followed suit and soon the entire town looked as though it had plucked from Bavaria and deposited in Michigan.
One German authority described the architecture of the town as the most authentic outside of Bavaria.