Amish Communities

How about some winter shots from the New Wilmington, Pennsylvania Amish community? This is one of my favorite Amish settlements, dating back to my first visit one autumn going on 15 years ago. While the sights I saw then were of hues that matched more closely to the distinct brown-topped buggies of the local Amish, […]

Continue Reading Winter In The New Wilmington Amish Community (20 Photos)

On the morning of Christmas Eve, I visited an Amish community in Summers County, West Virginia. This is near the Virginia border, about a half hour’s drive from the Pearisburg, VA settlement. The town is Forest Hill. The first place we came across was this double-business – Shady Hillside Variety Store and Kountry Crust Bakery. […]

Continue Reading A Visit To The Amish Of Summers County, West Virginia (42 Photos)

A nice article in the Boston Globe on how the Amish came to settle Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Some excerpts: “They wanted to see a particular place,” Maclure recalled. “I told them it was getting awful dark. Let’s wait until morning. They asked if they might camp in a field or barn.” They’d brought sleeping bags. […]

Continue Reading How The Amish Came To Vermont

On Saturday I visited the Union Grove Amish settlement, one of two in North Carolina. This was a quick one as I was on the way to the Blue Ridge Parkway on a trip with my brother. We stopped in at the big attraction in the community, the Amish-owned Shiloh General Store. That was followed […]

Continue Reading My 30-Minute Visit To Shiloh General Store @ Union Grove, NC (33 Photos)

Molly asks a good question on the recent Lancaster farm stay post: Eric, would you tell us the differences between Lancaster county & Holmes county? We have visited Holmes county, but would like to know the differences. As the two largest and most-visited Amish communities, people often wonder which one of Holmes County and Lancaster […]

Continue Reading Which Community Should You Visit? 7 Differences Between Lancaster County & Holmes County

Where do the Amish live? A new resource has been published listing the locations of nearly 600 Amish settlements across North America. You can access the list at the Young Center’s Amish Studies website. This list actually includes two nations – the US, and Canada with its much smaller Amish population. Organized by state and […]

Continue Reading 2020 Nationwide Amish Settlement List

Which states have the most Amish settlements? I should first note that this post is about individual settlements, not total Amish population. The two have some correlation, but are not the same thing. An Amish settlement is a distinct geographic location where Amish live. The roughly 350,000-strong Amish population is found in close to 600 […]

Continue Reading The 10 States With The Most Amish Settlements

A quick look at a couple of communities in the more distant corners of Amish America. First, Bonnet Strings author Saloma Furlong gives an update on the Amish community near Brownington, Vermont via her blog. Vermont photos: Mike Dougherty/VTDigger Amish moved there in 2015, making Vermont the second New England state with a community. In 2018 […]

Continue Reading A Look At Amish In Two Distant Corners: Vermont & Kansas

As it does around this time each year, the Young Center at Elizabethtown College has just published its Amish population estimates for 2020. The total estimated Amish population is 350,665, found in 31 states, four Canadian provinces, and two South American countries. Some interesting takeaways from the figures: 1. Four Large Settlements. The largest settlement, […]

Continue Reading The Amish Population Has Doubled Since 2000 – Now Exceeds 350,000 (2020 Amish Population Figures)

A look at one of Kentucky‘s oldest Amish settlements – plus another Amish business map to add to the growing collection. This one is in Crittenden County, near the town of Marion. There are four church districts; Amish have been here for over 40 years. An article which ran in the Crittenden Press in 2018 […]

Continue Reading The Amish Of Crittenden County, Kentucky