Ernest Bontrager has a clip of still images taken in the Amish settlement at Monte Vista, Colorado (Rio Grande and Conejos counties). It’s not a new video (2010), but is a nice look at the type of sights you might see in a western Amish settlement. I haven’t visited Amish further west than Iowa, so I like these looks at communities in the Mountain Time Zone….
A recent news item looks at a new Colorado Amish furniture and variety store which has opened in Fremont County (central CO). Partners Joe Nissley and Paul Schmucker of the P & J Hitching Post have sourced all their goods to Amish producers, with furniture, quilts, and “denim-works” coming from both local and Midwestern sources. They’re also doing food, with bread, cookies and baked goods, plus…
I got a kick out of this story, about a Colorado resident who hired a Lancaster Amish crew to travel 1,700 miles to build a fence. No doubt Colorado being the destination had something to do with their willingness to go. A less picturesque part of America may not have enticed the crew. Â As a largely Midwest and Eastern people with a soft spot for…
Migration to previously-unsettled areas has been a story of significance for Amish in recent years.  Migration is not a new phenomenon, as Amish have long moved to new areas for reasons of economics, due to church issues, or for other causes. Places that have seen a recent influx of Amish include Missouri, Wisconsin, and New York–all states that have established Amish populations. Recent years have…
Typhoid fever and bad ‘plumbing’ did this bunch in. David Luthy, Amish convert and historian, explains in his Settlements that Failed that the Amish settlement at Ordway, Colorado started off promisingly enough in 1910. The area had been heavily promoted by a realty company for settlement, and proved attractive enough for some families to move there.  A town named Dayton was meant to arise in…