Opening its season March 1, the Saxon Lutheran Memorial (SLM), located in Frohna, Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis, has several events planned for the year.
Coming up April 24-25 will be a spring mini-festival, craft fair, and plant sale. The two-day event includes bread baking, demonstrations, children’s activities, and sales of crafts and plants. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
At the “community baking day” on May 1, visitors may use the SLM’s brick oven from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is held the first Saturday of each month. Items that can be baked in the oven include muffins, bread, pie, cobbler, cake, granola, casseroles, meats, rolls, and pizza.
Lynda Lorenz, SLM curator, said a new, larger gift shop will be opening soon, with more room for gift items and local crafts.
“We are looking forward to being able to promote and sell items grown here at the Saxon Memorial, too, such as seeds from the wildflower patch, dried and fresh herbs, farm-fresh eggs, homemade bread, and garden-fresh produce,” she said.
The 30th anniversary of SLM’s annual “Fall Festival” is planned for Oct. 9 and will feature commemorative items for sale, a special emcee, and a display on past festivals.
New this year will be a display “commemorating the importance of the fiber industry” that came to the area along with the Saxon immigration, she said.
Lorenz says volunteers are always needed at the memorial. Volunteer opportunities are available for groups or individuals, including serving as tour guides, building and maintaining structures, hospitality, cleaning, and gardening.
In 2011, the site will celebrate its 50th anniversary, having been purchased in 1961 by Concordia Historical Institute (CHI), the archival arm of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.
The Saxon Lutheran Memorial is an outdoor history museum in the setting of a log cabin village located on the homestead and farm of pioneer Thomas Twyman. In 1839 it was bought by brothers Wilhelm and Christian Bergt, who were two of the 600-plus Saxon immigrants who came from Germany and settled in the area.
After the death in 1956 of the last Bergt family member to live on the property, a local farmer bought the farmstead for the purpose of working the fields. However, a distant relative of the Bergts inquired about purchasing the property and in 1961 CHI had raised enough funds to make the purchase and opened it to the public in 1964.
The Saxon Lutheran Memorial is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, and in 2009 it was recognized by the Friends of the Missouri State Archive Association as the last complete home and farmstead complex of that era.
For more information about the Saxon Lutheran Memorial, visit its Web site at www.saxonlutheranmemorial.com, e-mail Lorenz at slmlynda@att.net, or call 573-824-5404. Hours of operation are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.
Posted April 14, 2010
