Enjoy Springtime in Missouri at Dutzow’s first Maifest!

In 1819,  a world famous German author named Gottfried Duden purchased land in what was the Missouri Territory, hoping to investigate what he thought would be a good location for Germans wanting to emigrate to the U.S. After spending 1824-1827 in the new State of Missouri, he published a book called A Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America about that visit, which prompted thousands of Germans to come to Missouri. One of those first to follow was a small group called the Berlin Society, the first society of Germans to settle as a group. In 1834, by Johann Wilhelm Bock, leader of the group, who has sold his estate named Dutzow in Germany, platted the small village here on the hillsides of Lake Creek. In the 1890s when the KATY Railroad came through, an addition brought the village closer to the railroad.

Today the village remains very much the same as it always has. Quaint buildings and shops, nestle among the vineyards on the sloping hillsides, where Lake Creek flows into the Missouri River near Washington, Missouri. Part of the Missouri Weinstrasse between Augusta and Marthasville, the German heritage is still very much alive.