Amish Communities

With the expansion of the Amish to more and more locations (over 600 of them now in North America), and the recent addition of a new Amish state (New Mexico), it’s becoming easier to say where the Amish aren’t than where they are. Now, that said, many states just have a small Amish presence – […]

Continue Reading The 18 States WITHOUT An Amish Community

A glimpse at one of Kentucky’s Swartzentruber Amish communities today, courtesy of Don Burke. The community is in Graves County, KY, and is two church districts large. Let’s have a look at some photos of this plain Amish settlement. I’ll add a few comments as we do. Horseshoeing business open three days per week. The […]

Continue Reading 12 Views from the Amish of Graves County, Kentucky

According to the most recent figures, the community in Adams County, Indiana, centered around the town of Berne, remains the country’s fifth-largest, with over 11,000 Amish. This is really a sprawling community spread out across the wide expanses of flat Indiana farmland. I have visited here several times over the years, but don’t know it nearly […]

Continue Reading 10 Views From the Berne, Indiana Amish Community

This title is meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. What I’m referring to though, is an interesting development brought to my attention by reader Al in KY. I’ve noted here in the past how the Elkhart-LaGrange and nearby Nappanee Amish settlements (first and third largest in Indiana) have essentially “grown together” in that their areas […]

Continue Reading An “Amish Megalopolis”?

I put together a video on my five favorite Amish communities to visit. In total I’ve been to around 70 Amish communities, many of them multiple times. These are my favorites to return to. I won’t give away the communities here, but I can say that one is in Ohio, two are in Pennsylvania, one […]

Continue Reading My 5 Favorite Amish Communities To Visit

The latest Amish population statistics have been released by the Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. After looking over the numbers I can share that – no surprise here – the Amish population is larger this year than the last. The new estimated tally is 373,620, an increase of a bit […]

Continue Reading Amish Population 2022: Amish Call New Mexico Home

We’ve got another collection of Don Burke photos for you today – this batch from the Amish community at Chetopa, Kansas (Labette County). We don’t talk too often about the Amish in the Sunflower State, but they have a solid and long-running presence there. In fact, several of the oldest Amish communities are in the […]

Continue Reading Visiting a Kansas Amish community (21 Photos)

On Saturday my brother and I paid another visit to the Swartzentruber Amish settlement in western NC (the area of Polkville & Ellenboro). I am happy to report that the community is up to 22 households, up from around 14 in late 2019. At that time I had been informed a couple of families had […]

Continue Reading The North Carolina Swartzentruber Amish Community Has Grown (15 Images)

I have written a lot about visiting new Amish communities (new for me, that is) over the years. And so this past December when on a trip through Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio, I filmed what it is like for me when I go to a new community. As I’ve written before, I usually just try […]

Continue Reading Visiting An Amish Community For The First Time (Video)

Here are some of the things I saw yesterday visiting Amish communities in Kentucky. I made it to four different settlements, stopped in a couple of stores, and met some nice people. Kentucky is increasingly loaded with Amish settlements (around 50 of them) and it seems like wherever you are, you’re a stone’s throw from […]

Continue Reading 10 Views From Kentucky Amish Communities