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THE AMISH OF THE UPPER MIDWEST
Regional Research Associates offers
professional specialized
consultation services
on the Older
Order Amish communities of the Upper
Midwest, including presentations,
training and conference development for local,
county and state medical,
social service, emergency, public safety and
courts personnel, to enable better understanding
of the culture and
beliefs of the 'Plain Peoples' of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Recommended
Reading 
Produce & Farm
Auctions: Bluff Country Amish
Now
Available
through Amazon.com
Nearly forty years ago the Old Order Amish—among them the
most conservative of the groups, the Swartzentruber Amish—migrated west
from Ohio and Indiana in search of affordable and fertile farmland.
Their searches took them as far as the southern reaches of Iowa, and
the northern reaches of Michigan,
but a significant number of families came to Wisconsin,
Iowa and Minnesota, particularly
to the district known as the "Driftless Area." Driftless
refers to land that has never been covered with glaciers, thus the
Driftless Area is a
vast district of high hills and
blufflands carved by deep cold fast-running streams. It is among
the most fertile land in the Upper Midwest,
and considered one of its great beauty areas. Small villages dot
the valleys and hide in quiet byways, and the arrival of the Amish in
the 1960s brought tourism of a new kind, only enhancing an already
lovely region.
The Driftless
Area earned its more well-known name, the "Bluff Country," not only
because of the exposed sandstone bluffs rising high above the trout
streams, but also because the entire region is bisected by great
rivers: The Wisconsin and the Mississippi, and above these vast
flowages rise magnificent bluffs of sandstone from Lake Pepin down to
the Illinois
border.
The Bluff Country Amish live in three special state areas: southeastern
Minnesota, southwestern Wisconsin, and northeastern Iowa; this is,
essentially, where the political boundaries of the state lines meet at
the Mississippi River. Here, among old Scandinavian and German
and Czech town communities, among wonderful Native American
archaeological sites, the Old Order Amish fit in so perfectly with
their natural farming methods and their plainly lovely farmsteads that
it would be difficult for us to now recall the region as it might have
been before the Second World War.
Please visit these
three special districts of the Bluff Country. Produce, craft and
horse auctions are listed for each district throughout the year, and
selected visitor information has been provided to help you
plan your travels.
The
Amish of
the Bluff Country
The Amish of Southeastern
Minnesota
The Amish of Northeastern
Iowa
Seasonal Auctions Among the Bluff Country
Amish
Recommended
Reading
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