I think the majority of the world is probably familiar with the musical, The Sound of Music (Wise, 1965), but I wonder how many of you who live outside of Vermont know that after travelling around the American countryside as a singing troupe between 1938-1941 known as the Trapp Family Singers, they ended up settling in Stowe, VT?
Let’s back up a little and start from the beginning. This may come as a shocker, but the movie’s events based on Maria von Trapp’s book, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (von Trapp, 1949), was grossly modified and exaggerated. The family did not climb over the Alps, but took a train, and they went to Italy, not Switzerland. There were ten children, not seven. Maria was not originally in love with Georg when they got married. They married in 1927, 11 years before leaving Austria, and not right before the Nazi takeover of Austria like the movie depicts, etc. You can find all these differences, plus the family’s original Declaration of Intention photographs, here.
Here’s a longer version of actual events:
Georg von Trapp (b.1880) was in the Austrian Navy. In 1912, he married Agathe Whitehead, granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, inventor of the torpedo. Georg and Agathe had seven children together before and while Georg fought in World War I as a naval captain, then he retired from the navy once Austria lost all its seaports post-war. Agathe died from scarlet fever in 1922. Devastated by this, the family sold their home in Croatia and moved to an estate in Salzburg, Austria.
Maria Augusta Kutschera (b.1905 in Vienna, Austria) was orphaned as a young child and was raised by an atheist and socialist by an abusive relative. When she was older, she “accidentally” attended a Palm Sunday service while attending the State Teachers’ College of Progressive Education in Vienna, thinking she was going to a concert of Bach music. Sincerely moved by the priest’s sermon, Maria entered the Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg in Salzburg after graduating college.
Her health began to decline due to the lack of fresh air and exercise, so when Georg approached the Reverend Mother seeking a teacher for one of his sick daughters, Maria was chosen. This was in part due to the Reverend Mother thinking this would help improve her health, but also because of her teacher training.
Maria began to instruct the young Maria von Trapp and ultimately began to have a deeper relationship with all seven children. During this time, Georg fell in love with Maria and ended up proposing to her. While Maria didn’t love him in the same way at first, she still married him, and she eventually did fall in love with him. They had three more children together.
It’s important to note here that while the movie showed Georg as being a strict father and Maria as a carefree, loving person, the opposite was more or less true. Georg in real life was a warm-hearted individual, while according to the young Maria, Maria von Trapp (née Kutschera) “had a terrible temper. . . And from one moment to the next, you didn’t know what hit her. We were not used to this. But we took it like a thunderstorm that would pass, because the next minute she could be very nice.” Maria DID often sing with the children, however.
In the 1930s, the family lost most of its wealth because of the Great Depression, so they “tightened their belts” and Maria suggested the family go on a singing tour for money. “They ended up winning first place in the Salzburg Music Festival in 1936 and became successful, singing Renaissance and Baroque music, madrigals, and folk songs all across Europe.”
When the Nazis annexed Austria on March 12th, 1938 (called Anschluss, the German word for connection, or union), the von Trapp family took it upon themselves to take a train to Italy, then to London, then took a ship to New York. After their six-month visas expired, they briefly went to Scandinavia to tour before returning. They toured all over the U.S. before buying a 2,600-hundred-acre farm in 1941 in Stowe, Vermont!
Running a music camp on their property when they were not on tour, the von Trapp family began to thrive. However, Georg passed away in 1947 and was buried on the property. In 1949, Maria published her book, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (von Trapp, 1949). A year later, the Trapp Family Lodge opened for business, serving as a hotel for skiers in their 27-bedroom home. By 1955, they stopped touring altogether and focused on the business, all the while the children were getting older and focusing on their own careers, one by one.
While the Trapp Lodge was open, the movie industry became interested in her very popular novel, and two German/Austrian movies were eventually made with screenwriting help from Maria herself (who made very little profit from them), The Trapp Family (Leibeneiner, 1956), and The Trapp Family in America (Leibenener, 1958). Hollywood producers saw these movies and bought the rights from the German producers, and in 1965, The Sound of Music was released to American audiences. Maria made no profit from this film, and changes to the actual history were extensive, which upset many von Trapp family members. Regardless, the movie currently holds 55th place on the American Film Institute’s 100 greatest American movies of all time.
The success of the movie meant an increase in visitors to the Trapp Family Lodge. It was and still is a popular destination for movie fans and skiers alike. However, on December 21st, 1980, a fire broke out in the basement that had a devastating impact. One man died, and the building was unsalvageable. From this tragedy, a 96-room alpine lodge was built in its place. Of course, this upgrade meant that they could house even more visitors year after year.
The resort now has a spa, swimming pool, farm-to-table cuisine, hiking and cross-country ski trails, sleigh rides in the winter, an indoor rock-climbing wall, yoga, art exhibitions, and in 2010, Johannes, the youngest son of Maria and Georg, gathered some local beer brewers and started a brewing operation in the basement. Since then, that expanded into a 30,000 square foot brewery facility on site that makes 36,000 barrels of beer annually, and they’re all European style beers. See their current beer selection here. Almost all of their mainstay beers have won awards in recent years.
In 2025, they officially added the “von” back to the Trapp Family Lodge name, to be in alignment with their true surname.
This thriving family business welcomes roughly 500,000 people every year through their lodge, gift shop, brewery, nature walks, and other amenities, making it a clear travel destination for people all over the world. And of course, this helps the Vermont economy!
Thanks for reading!
