150 Amish To Pick Up & Move Man’s Building Off Yellowstone River – For “Cookies”
Another feel-good story for your Friday – at least “part one” of the story. An Amish man named Nelson Troyer is spearheading an effort to move the garage of a non-Amish neighbor. Mike Kinsey lost his home in flooding on the Yellowstone River in 2022. The move is happening tomorrow and Troyer is looking to have 150+ people to get the job done.
Amish moving buildings by hand is nothing new. So I’m hoping that when this happens we get a new video of one of my favorite sub-genres of Amish content, Amish moving buildings by hand.
Local news station Q2 has a video from which these screenshots are taken. The most striking bit is the footage of Kinsey’s home actually being swallowed up by the river two years ago. The home literally collapses and is taken by the waters. You can see a screenshot below.
The video is not embeddable but can be viewed here. What a horrible night that must have been. It seems that Kinsey, who has called the place home for nearly 50 years, has been struggling to stay on the river since then.
Enter Nelson Troyer and his garage move plan. From what it sounds like, Troyer has been a godsend for Kinsey, coming at just the right time. From the report:
“I felt defeated until Nelson came into my life and started talking about doing this for cookies,” said Kinsey.
Nelson Troyer and his son Virgil have been preparing the building.
Kinsey asked about paying the people who would be helping.
“I said, how… would I pay all these 100 people to come and move my garage at one time?” Kinsey said. “And he said a cookie perhaps or some nourishment would suffice. That’s what he said to me.”
Troyer is a member of the Amish community near Roberts and is the mastermind behind the project.
He put hurricane clips at the top of the trestles, attached wooden planks to the walls for stability, and is using 2-by-4s to build spots to lift the building.
Troyer had been working on the neighbor’s barn when Kinsey asked him if he could work on his garage.
“I was going to have Nelson tear it down,” Kinsey said. “He just told me I can’t, in my right mind, see destroying that nice building.”
“The old fella lost his house on the river,” said Troyer. “Why not reach out and help him?”
Based on the location, the nearest Montana Amish community to Park City appears to be at Roberts in Carbon County, roughly 40 miles away. Out west that would be considered “in the neighborhood”.
Alternatively, I considered that this may be someone from an “Amishesque” community (of which Montana has one or two – see the group at Libby), but it seems that these are horse-and-buggy Amish.
All best to the crew tomorrow as they do this move. It’s heartwarming to think this is going to happen, in true Amish style, for “just some cookies”. And if this gets filmed, I’ll be sure to post about it here. For the time being, you can check out this remarkable barn move video in New York state (2022), filmed from inside the building:
Insight
Interesting and lots of fun to watch. Gives some insight into how construction projects were accomplished before power tools, cranes and other gas powered machinery.
Yes!
Beautiful work, and SUCH a pleasure to watch in progress! God Bless you all!
Amazing!
I love watching these videos..They do such amazing things. It is unreal..
Many were watching along the roadway..They probably were in awe, as I was..
Thank you for sharing..
It is really great seeing neighbors help each other.
Commitment
It’s too bad that most English find it impossible to cooperate with one another the way Amish do. I know for a fact that my Amish friends actually take pleasure in helping others when asked. I, as English, have been treated like family because we both do things for each other without hesitation, and ask for nothing in return. We derive pleasure from the ability to help when needed. I will never give up my friendship with any of my Amish friends!
Typical Amish Response
Christianity in action (i.e. Love your neighbor).
That’s about six miles from me, as the crow flies. I’m safely well above the river, but man it was nasty that year, a hundred year flood. I’m glad he’ll have this part of his life saved, by the kindness of strangers.
Awesome Video
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