This Amish Store Burned To The Ground In April. Just 51 Days Later, It Was Back In Business

The Amish-owned Rustic Ridge Variety Store burned to the ground back in April in a community in Lewis County, Missouri. While it’s hardly a surprise when an Amish community quickly gets on the job of cleaning up and rebuilding, this one seemed ahead of even a typical schedule.

Less than a week later came news that the new store had already been framed and was well on its way back up.  And weeks later, the store was up and running again, according to a new report at Muddy River News.

Seven weeks later, to be precise. That means it was already open again back in June. Pretty impressive! Even for the Amish. This “beats” the recent rebuild time of Idaho’s Baker Country Market by several months (though, that appears to be a significantly larger store).

Though a rapid, roll-up-your-sleeves recovery is pretty normal for the Amish, it’s inspiring to see such a quick bounce-back. No doubt the locals are happy for it too. Muddy River’s video report at bottom captures some of their responses as they shop in the new store.

The official re-opening was June 6th. So after being left with smoldering wreckage after the original store burned down April 16th – a total loss – the rebuilt store has put in a full summer season, and then some. The time between the fire and reopening the new place was just 51 days, to be even more precise.

This swift relaunch may have surprised even the owner; as Muddy River News reports, “Owner Eli Yutzy told us months ago they hoped to be back open by late summer.”

Yutzy got help not only from this community, but from others. As we noted in the update, even some Amish from a community in Iowa, over an hour away by car, had come to help at least in the initial phases of the rebuild. In all, they were said to have several dozen helping at that time.

That example shows how Amish networks typically extend well beyond their often small communities (the settlement where the story is located, in the Canton/Monticello area of Lewis County, has a bit over 300 residents), to related churches in other settlements and states. Just as they famously help non-Amish with recovering from disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes, they also show up to help their own in times like these.

At the time early in the rebuild, the new store was meant to be a bit larger than the old, I assume that’s how it worked out. One store patron tells MRN that the store is “beautiful,” noting an improved checkout area. Bravo to the folks in this community and from beyond who helped make this happen. Watch the video below: