 A German dialect, traced by linguist Professor Wolfgang Fleischhauer of The Ohio State University to northwest Germany (almost Dutch), is still spoken by many members of the community.Maria Stein is located approximately south of Grand Lake St Marys (Grand Lake St. Marys State Park), a man-made lake constructed in the 19th century to feed the Miami and Erie Canal.The lake has benefited from the Clean Water Act and there has been a resurgence of recreational use over the past 2 decades following improvement in water quality.