The Indian Mission

Here, on July 1, 1845, three Lutheran missionaries, Rev. Johann J. F. Auch, Rev. J. Simon Dumser, and Rev. George Sinke, arrived. The Lutheran leader, Rev. Friedrich Schmid, sent them from Ann Arbor to evangelize the Chippewa Indians. A log chapel was built here later that summer. In 1849, Rev. Mr. Auch ferried lumber from Lower Saginaw to Shebahyonk on Wild Fowl Bay, seven miles north of Sebewaing. A mission house was built there and dedicated June 27, 1849. Rev. J. F. Maier had charge of the mission. By 1854 the Indians had left these parts. The mission house was sold. A century later, it was moved to this site and established as a museum. It is now maintained by the Michigan District of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.