Jasey Michelle's 365/366 Photo a Day Blog

Two unique religious groups were attracted to the fertile agriculture soil of southeast Iowa in the mid-1800's: the Old Order Amish in Kalona, in 1846, and the Community of True Inspiration, (the church of the Amana Colonies) in 1855. Both groups sought isolated, sparsely populated areas with adequate economic opportunities to preserve and develop their respective separatist communities.

But the Amana people and the Old Order Amish are two distinct groups of very different historical traditions and religious teachings. There is, furthermore, no ethnic relationship between the two groups, or has there been much interaction over the years. Still, the fact that these two groups settled within 50 miles of one another, eight years apart, held separatist viewpoints, spoke German and dressed in similar styles, has caused numerous visitors to confuse the two groups. This confusion has been accentuated in recent years as both the Amana Colonies and Kalona have become major visitor attractions.