BLOG 3 -- NEWFIE 3 VISIT THE AMANA COLONIES IN IOWA!

On 4/15 we drove to the Amana Colonies near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  For those of you who read last summer's blogs, yep, we're back again!  We arrived at the Amana Colonies RV Park at 4:30PM and signed up for 2 nights at the Passport America discount rate of $16 per night for full hookups!!  Great park too with over 400 sites but they just opened for the season a week or so earlier so only 4-5 rigs here! 

 

Firewood ready for winter

First, a little history.  Amana is a very old communal religious society called the “Community of True Inspiration” founded in Germany back in 1714.  Members were called “Inspirationists.”  Because of severe religious persecution there, they moved to America and settled near Buffalo, NY in 1844 on 5000 acres with 1200 people.  Soon, as Buffalo grew, they were surrounded and decided to find a more isolated place with more room to farm and practice their religion. 

 

Stone house in High Amana

They moved to Iowa and purchased the present 26,000 acre tract in 1855 and began building seven villages each with a church, communal kitchens, meat shop, smokehouse, bakery, a general store, winery, beekeeping apiary, dairy, large gardens, orchards and vineyards.  The 1500 residents attended church 11 times each week.  Farming produced their food and the surplus was sold outside.  Two woolen mills,  flour mills, a calico works, a brewery, lumber and brick yards, general stores, and many craft shops such as the tinsmith, furniture shops, a clock shop and more were all manned by residents.  Doctors, dentists and pharmacists tended to the needs of the residents.  Over 50 communal kitchens in the 7 villages fed the residents 3 meals plus 2 snacks each day!

 

Amana Heritage Museum

Communal Life--”In the seven villages, residents received housing, medical care, meals, all household necessities and schooling for their children.  Property and resources were shared.  Men and women were assigned jobs by their village council of brethren.  No one received a wage; no one needed one!” * Children attended school six days a week, year round until they reached 14.  Boys were assigned jobs on the farm or at a craft shop while girls worked in a communal kitchen or in the gardens.  A few talented boys were sent to colleges to study teaching, medicine, dentistry or pharmacy and return to Amana to practice their profession.  The hallmark of all Amana's crafts was handmade and top quality.

 

Woolen Mill smoke stack

The Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s ended 89 years of Amana's communal society when a massive collapse in farm prices endangered the commune's future and residents began rebelling against the communal system.   In 1932 the “Great Change” came when communal living was abandoned, the profit-sharing Amana Society Inc. was formed to own and run the large farming and forestry operations, manage the property and the large businesses like the Amana Woolen Mills, General Stores, Smokehouse and Meat Shop, the Little Red Wagon toy store and the Furniture and Clock Shop.  Private enterprise was encouraged, opening up more opportunities and with residents now earning wages, they began purchasing homes, shopping for their needs and cooking their own meals.  The Amana Church continued but the frequency of services declined.  
About 50% of today's residents in Amana are descendants of pre-1932 Amana members.  Crafts shops and art studios and galleries are highlights of today's Amana experience, as well as food and beverage businesses. The Amana Society Inc. today also operates the Amana Heritage Museum in Amana, the Homestead Blacksmith Shop in Homestead, the Communal Kitchen and Cooper Shop in Middle Amana and the Amana Community Church Museum also in Homestead.  Many of the historic buildings continue to exist in all of the villages surrounded by gardens and the farms.  Amana Refrigeration, longtime maker of appliances and the Amana Radar Range, the first microwave, still exists in Amana but is now owned by Whirlpool Corporation.

Amana Colonies consists of the seven villages—Amana, East Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, West Amana, South Amana and Homestead.  In fact, one of the first sights on the road into Amana  is a giant billboard with a map of all the 7 Amana villages!  (see picture on top of blog)

The next morning, we started at the Visitor Center in Amana and learned that the Amana van tour, which we enjoyed so much last year, doesn't begin for the season until May 2.  We walked all of Amana village, visiting many of the shops. Many of the food shops have samples—yum!  We all wanted to have dinner that night at the Ronneburg Restaurant, housed in an original Amana communal kitchen, serving German food for over 65 years!   All the villages have a water tower  with the village name stenciled on the side, making navigation easy! 

We discovered the Amana Windmill House partially hidden just off Main Street! 

Next we drove to High Amana to the 1858 General Store which still displays many historic items as well as modern day goods. 

Last year we bought a dozen of Bill Metz' handmade Christmas icicles at his tinsmith shop.  An old 1 cent gumball machine was interesting too! 

Across the street an old stone house had a distinctive mailbox!  

In Homestead, we stopped at AJ's Copper Garden to see the incredible collection of painted copper flowers, insects and animals for sale. We were sorry to learn that AJ is retiring in August and closing the business—such amazing art!!

Back to Amana, we all wanted to see the Amana Woolen Mill and its old as well as new looms and other machinery as well as the finished woolen blankets and clothes made there. 

These photographs tell the story!    

Across the street is Millstream Brewing Co., a craft brewery serving samples of its 6 or 7 different beers as well as its terrific cream soda and root beer! 

Next we ventured across to the Visitor Center and the Amana Quilting Gallery next door.  Quilting isn't exactly my thing but there were many interesting and colorful quilts as well as quilting fabrics on display.  These photographs show my favorites!!

Our final visit that afternoon was the Amana Heritage Museum and its introductory film showing the old Amana way of life.  The Museum displays are fascinating!  We covered this Museum in last year's blog so here's just 3 photographs  showing an original 1968 Amana Radarange , some kids' toys and old farm equipment in the barn.  

Amana is a National Historic Landmark!  The final day's activity was our great dinner together at the Ronneburg Restaurant.  The Wiener Schnitzel was delicious as was everything! Everyone enjoyed Amana as a quiet and relaxing stop with a lot of history and very friendly people!

* quote from Amana Colonies 2015 Visitor's Guide page 4