That will be a lot of buggies

[Soloist]

It would be interesting to know why the Amish community in Oregon failed.

[Josh]

It would be interesting to know why the Amish community in Oregon failed.

They all became Amish-Mennonites, and then Mennonites, and then Charity!

[Josh]

America is constantly changing. That's what makes it interesting.

This is no different than say how Hispanic immigrants are moving into declining small towns and rural all across Texas and the Great Plains and opening up their own businesses and bringing life back to crumbling rural areas.

Change is the only constant.

In an economy like ours, the only thing it takes to restore a low-income, run-down rural community is people who are not afraid to work.

Well, that isn't always the case. Maybe more so in the east where small towns were more agricultural and there are lots of run-down farms that can be restored and made productive, especially if markets are relatively close.

But out here in the west there are endless numbers of small towns that are more or less crumbling or ghost towns because the resource extraction industries that supported them have disappeared or changed. Logging towns, mining towns, etc. Without the local mine or saw mill there is no economic reason for the town to exist. And no amount of sweat equity is going to bring it back. Often there is no water so agriculture is not an option. Sometimes they can pivot to things like tourism if there are local attractions that can be marketed (Moab Utah, Bend Oregon, etc.). But most places don't have those attributes.

There are plenty of Amish in places like Colorado and Texas. I have often puzzled myself to try to figure out how they make it, but they do.

[Soloist]

It would be interesting to know why the Amish community in Oregon failed.

They all became Amish-Mennonites, and then Mennonites, and then Charity!

Yet the ex-Amish I knew in Oregon were never part of that community. Certainly none of them were part of the Charity church we attended.

[mike]

In an economy like ours, the only thing it takes to restore a low-income, run-down rural community is people who are not afraid to work.

Well, that isn't always the case. Maybe more so in the east where small towns were more agricultural and there are lots of run-down farms that can be restored and made productive, especially if markets are relatively close.

But out here in the west there are endless numbers of small towns that are more or less crumbling or ghost towns because the resource extraction industries that supported them have disappeared or changed. Logging towns, mining towns, etc. Without the local mine or saw mill there is no economic reason for the town to exist. And no amount of sweat equity is going to bring it back. Often there is no water so agriculture is not an option. Sometimes they can pivot to things like tourism if there are local attractions that can be marketed (Moab Utah, Bend Oregon, etc.). But most places don't have those attributes.

There are plenty of Amish in places like Colorado and Texas. I have often puzzled myself to try to figure out how they make it, but they do.

I have Amish cousins in Montana. Moved recently, but joined a group that has been there for some time. For them, that kind of a move basically cuts them off from the larger Amish community other than by written correspondence and phone calls. Travel is really something when you can't fly, and have to pay somebody to drive you those kinds of distances.

[Ken]

In an economy like ours, the only thing it takes to restore a low-income, run-down rural community is people who are not afraid to work.

Well, that isn't always the case. Maybe more so in the east where small towns were more agricultural and there are lots of run-down farms that can be restored and made productive, especially if markets are relatively close.

But out here in the west there are endless numbers of small towns that are more or less crumbling or ghost towns because the resource extraction industries that supported them have disappeared or changed. Logging towns, mining towns, etc. Without the local mine or saw mill there is no economic reason for the town to exist. And no amount of sweat equity is going to bring it back. Often there is no water so agriculture is not an option. Sometimes they can pivot to things like tourism if there are local attractions that can be marketed (Moab Utah, Bend Oregon, etc.). But most places don't have those attributes.

There are plenty of Amish in places like Colorado and Texas. I have often puzzled myself to try to figure out how they make it, but they do.

Right, but they are moving into agricultural areas in those states. They aren't moving into ghost towns in the desert next to abandoned mines. Or into old logging towns that atrophied because the mill closed or all the timber was cut down.

My only point is that a lot of declining rural areas, especially in the west are never going to come back. Because they only existed in the first place to service rural industries that no longer exist. That is different from finding cheap farmland in remote corners of the US and bringing it back. Vast portions of the west aren't suitable for farming in the first place, largely due to lack of water or land ownership patterns. And no amount of Amish sweat equity will change that.

For example, I wouldn't expect Amish to settle here in Oregon. Because most of the good fertile farmland is already highly utilized and expensive. Including all of the Willamette Valley and all the parts of Central Oregon over where RZehr lives where there is irrigation and water rights. And I'm honestly not sure how well Amish farming techniques would work on land that requires mechanized center-pivot irrigation systems to be productive. Maybe just fine, I have no idea.

The point being, that Oregon does indeed have lots and lots of empty rural land. But it is empty largely because (1) it is not suited to agriculture, or (2) public lands owned by the BLM or Forest Service and not available for purchase. So compared to say Nebraska, Oregon is probably not a prime location for Amish resettlement.

Apparently there is a small Amish settlement in NE Washington but the geography up there is somewhat different and not so arid. So it is probably more suited to small scale farming.

[mike]

I think the trend generally has been for Amish and Old Order Mennonites to move south and west out of the northeast into neighboring states where the price of real estate is less than their home areas, but still close enough that you can travel back in a day or less. I do business with OOMs in central Pennsylvania, and I hear Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri a lot, and even western Ohio, as places where they are setting up new communities.

[Josh]

I have Amish cousins in Montana. Moved recently, but joined a group that has been there for some time. For them, that kind of a move basically cuts them off from the larger Amish community other than by written correspondence and phone calls. Travel is really something when you can't fly, and have to pay somebody to drive you those kinds of distances.

Perhaps they can visit the Amish family I ran into recently that is taking an Amtrak trip to Montana (complete with their driver and rental car for her to drive them around).

[Jeff Altweg]

Not sure if a good many of the Regular Amish will be using buggies ,except for Sundays usage......Our daughter lives close to Beach City Ohio, where that big new Provia Plant went in recently .....They hire a lot of Amish , And my Daughter & son-in-law see and hear them going by from 4 AM on....Not on buggies, not being hauled by "Englishers" ,but by all types of battery powered scooters and bikes ,all with flashing red lights going good...i predict that as battery technology gets better and better ,this type of Amish moving will only increase.....they'll haul themselves .....And oh , don't feel sorry for them , My daughter tells me Provia ,(Owned by a Beachy Mennonite), pays very, very well, up to 80K per year ,before any overtime ......

[Josh]

There are plenty of horse and buggy during the week on Holmes, Wayne, and now even Columbiana Counties. A lot of Amish groups don’t allow powered bikes and scooters at all.