Jaunted

Communal Living / → All Tags

Off to the Amana Colonies

The Chicago Tribune pays a call to the Amana Colonies, seven small Iowan towns that were founded as experiments in communal living. They operated communally for nearly 90 years, until 1932. Now, the towns and their businesses are major regional tourist attractions -- the Colonial Williamsburg of the midwest, if you will.
If you go, whatever you do, don't call them the Amish. Although both groups have a predilection for severe clothes and (in the past, at least) keeping to themselves, the more mystic Amana colonists have little else in common with the Amish.

Related Stories:
·   Amana Colonies [Official Web site]
·   The Amana Colonies [National Register of Historic Places]