• Home
  • Visit Us
  • Events
  • Artifacts & Research
  • Fischer Hall
  • History on the Go!
    • Podcast
    • Blog
    • Newsletter
    • Student Resources
    • Walking Tour
  • About Us
    • About FHA
    • Membership
    • Staff and Board
  • Contact
FRANKENMUTH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
  • Home
  • Visit Us
  • Events
  • Artifacts & Research
  • Fischer Hall
  • History on the Go!
    • Podcast
    • Blog
    • Newsletter
    • Student Resources
    • Walking Tour
  • About Us
    • About FHA
    • Membership
    • Staff and Board
  • Contact

FHA BLOG

How Did Frankenmuth Become a Tourist Destination?

9/20/2021

0 Comments

 
​Generous locals taking pride in the city's beauty, businesses adopting German alpine architecture, and even the completion of the dike in the 1950s all helped to make Frankenmuth a tourist destination. But one often overlooked project literally paved the way for Frankenmuth's tourist appeal: The created of I-75.
​
Beginning in April of 1956, the Federal Aid Highway Act through the halls of Congress. By June the bill was signed into law by President Eisenhower. The initial bill allocated $25 billion in federal funds to construct 41,000 miles of interstate highways over the next decade. Our own trusty I-75 is one of those beautiful interstate highways that originated in this bill.
Picture
​The technical name of this bill is actually the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act. You may wonder, why the word defense? Well, this system of interstate travel was primarily funded through the defense budget and was also used to directly connect the United States Air Force bases.
​
I-75 was fully open to traffic in Michigan by 1973, but the full length of the highway, from Sault Sainte Marie to Miami was finished in 1986. The highway runs 1,786.47 miles from the Canadian border into Miami, Florida, crossing through 6 states in the process.
Picture
Picture
​The highway, for all its faults, does hold a special purpose for the town of Frankenmuth. Without it, travel to Frankenmuth would be much more difficult. I-75 replaced the old Dixie Highway. With the completion of I-75, Frankenmuth's boom as a commercial and tourist town was underway.
​
So, next time you’re cursing the minivan that just cut you off on I-75, just remember that you could be stuck behind that same minivan for miles on the Dixie Highway instead...

Garrett Lewis

​Garrett is an intern at the FHA and an undergraduate History major attending Saginaw Valley State University. 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    FHA BLog

    We are proud to present History at Home! History at Home is a virtual learning program that includes fun educational content, including a blog and our podcast. Even if you cannot visit us in person, there is still so much to do!

    Archives

    October 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021

    Categories

    All
    Collections
    Dirndl
    Education
    Exhibits
    Franconian Colonies
    Frankenhilf
    Frankenlust
    Frankenmuth
    Frankentrost
    Germany
    History
    Immigration
    Michigan History
    Museum
    Olympics
    Politics
    War
    World War

    RSS Feed

Picture

We Would Love to Have You Visit Soon!


Address

613 S. Main St.
Frankenmuth, MI
​48734

Telephone

(989) 652-9701

Email

fhadirector1963@gmail.com
  • Home
  • Visit Us
  • Events
  • Artifacts & Research
  • Fischer Hall
  • History on the Go!
    • Podcast
    • Blog
    • Newsletter
    • Student Resources
    • Walking Tour
  • About Us
    • About FHA
    • Membership
    • Staff and Board
  • Contact