MONTE VISTA — Faced with challenges to their traditional agricultural lifestyle, the Amish are adapting to vastly different economic opportunities in their new Colorado settlements.
After generations spent in the East and Midwest, Amish families have put down roots in three communities in and near what locals call “the Valley” — the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado — during the past eight years.
“We had been wanting a little more room, a change in the environment,” said Magdalena Troyer, who moved to the Monte Vista area three years ago from Missouri. “There was a pull to move to the wild West, I guess you’d call it.”
Roughly the size of Connecticut, the Valley lies between the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan mountains. The growing season is short at an average of 7,500 feet above sea level. And though snow graces the mountains, irrigation is needed because little rain falls on the tabletop-flat expanse.
Farming remains a priority, but the Amish have had to be inventive to compensate for the climate. Some have drawn on skills they brought with them, such as repairing wagons and building furniture, and others have developed new vocations such as commercial baking and operating a store.
The Troyers — Magdalena, Ivan and their six daughters — came from Missouri three years ago with a vision of farming. While still farming, the Valley’s scant precipitation made them realize they needed additional sources of income.
“We were used to it raining,” Magdalena said. The Valley receives an average of 7 inches of rainfall annually, compared with 34 inches annually at their former Missouri home.
They started the Sunshine Salvage Store, which sells at a discount non-refrigerated groceries that other stores have rejected for being scratched or dented. Magdalena also weaves, and Ivan does carpentry. Two daughters teach in the Amish school, and others work in the store.
“There have been adjustments,” Magdalena said. “Not so much for me and the house. That has been easier than for my husband, who is used to the woods and going hunting.”
While they love the mountains, Magdalena admits frustration with growing things such as tomatoes and corn in the kitchen garden, though beans and peas do well.
Known as the “Plain People,” Amish families, with their homespun clothing and horses and buggies, like the Valley area for its remoteness, a place to lead their humble way of life in their tight-knit communities.
Population estimates vary widely, with some Amish estimating their Colorado numbers at 400, while alternate data from a research group places the number at more than 800.
Amish residents say a few families a month are trickling into Colorado, which along with Montana is the farthest west the Amish have settled.
Area residents also have had to make adjustments, including learning who the Amish are and being wary of their buggies on roads that are gradually being widened.
“We don’t see them as outsiders. They’re trying to make a living like everyone else,” said Conejos County Commissioner John Sandoval.
Migrations relatively recent
The first Amish began moving in 2002 to an area south of Monte Vista not far from the national wildlife refuge. That settlement includes about 30 families today.
Two dozen miles to the southeast, the Manassa-Romeo area first attracted Amish families in 2004 and now has about 18 families.
In 2008, Amish started settling near Westcliffe, roughly 50 miles northeast of Alamosa. The community totals 10 families.
Visitors expecting quaint Amish businesses such as those in some communities back East will be disappointed. Other than the yellow buggy caution signs, an occasional horse-drawn wagon, and draft horses working the harvest, the Amish have blended in, which is just what they want.
The Amish contribute to the economy of the Valley area, one of the poorest parts of the state, and the quirky fabric of a region that boasts a UFO watch tower, Asian spiritual centers and centuries of migrations by American Indians, Spanish conquistadors and Mormons.
In their short tenure, the Amish have started businesses, spent money in the community and renovated homes. Some pay non-Amish residents to “taxi” them in motorized vehicles, which they don’t drive or own.
“We need them as much as they need us,” said Tony Moore, owner of the Independent Log Co., who employs several Amish men.
Alamosa Realtor Bill Werner added, “They eat in the restaurants occasionally, shop at Wal-Mart. They’re injecting new money and definitely helping property values.”
Some concerns arise
Privately, some Valley residents aren’t convinced the Amish are totally benign. Amish men often work construction jobs, and there are some hard feelings from non-Amish residents who contend the Amish underbid them on projects.
Non-Amish have two common misconceptions about the Amish, said Ivan Miller, who moved four years ago from Montana to the Manassa area and builds pre-fab log homes for Moore. “They say we are taking their jobs and that we don’t pay taxes.”
Ken Van Iwarden of the Alamosa County land-use department said there is some truth behind the underbidding allegation.
“They don’t acquire all of their insurances, such as health and worker comp,” Van Iwarden said. “They also use people in their own group to help on projects.”
The underbidding complaint is “typical” in areas with Amish workmen, said Donald Kraybill, a professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania and an author of numerous books about the Amish.
The Amish have a substantial advantage, Kraybill said, noting, “They don’t pay into Social Security, but they don’t take out of the Social Security system either.”
The Amish don’t have insurance costs, choosing to pay for their own health care and getting a discount from providers for doing so. They also don’t have retirement plans to fund, relying on family and community in old age.
The Amish do pay taxes such as on sales and property. In fact, Miller said, part of their property taxes support the public schools, which they don’t use.
“In a sense, we are double-taxed since we have to raise money through auctions and other activities for our own schools,” he said.
The recent migration to Colorado is part of a bigger trend. The Amish, whose population grew from 123,550 in 1991 to 249,500 in 2010, live in 28 states and one Canadian province. Much of the migration has been attributed to crowding and rising land prices in traditional Amish communities.
Nationally, the number of Amish settlements exploded from 215 to 427 between 1991 and 2010, according to the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College.
Colorado is among seven states that welcomed Amish residents for the first time in the past two decades. The other states are Arkansas, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Dakota and West Virginia.
Most of the Colorado migration came between 2004 and 2009, though families are still arriving.
Ruth Troyer and her husband, Joel, who are not related to the Valley Troyers, are among the most recent Amish transplants. They moved last spring to Westcliffe, which is cradled by the Sangre de Cristo and Wet mountains.
“We love the area, and it is something different,” Ruth Troyer said. “We came from Ohio. That area is really congested, and in such a large community, there aren’t many jobs available. Here, it is hard to make a living, but you can if you’re willing to do different things.”
Open since the settlement began three years ago, the Yoder Mountain View Furniture store has been a mainstay on Westcliffe’s Main Street. It sells quilts made by Amish women in the community and hardwood furniture crafted by Amish back East.
“Business has picked up this year,” said Ruth Troyer, who works in the store. “People are more freely spending, and the word is getting out.”
Like many mountain residents, the Colorado Amish have found they need several jobs to make ends meet.
“What’s interesting is they are all entrepreneurs, every one of them,” county Commissioner Sandoval said.
Businesses operated from the Amish homesteads include manufacturing vinyl windows, keeping bees, growing greenhouse vegetables, repairing wagons, fixing tack, making rustic furniture, creating pseudo river rock for construction, performing cement work, breeding dogs and running stores.
The women — who generally don’t hold jobs outside of the home except for teaching — can vegetables and fruits, sell at farmers markets, hand-stitch quilts, weave, cook, bake and garden, while caring for broods of children.
Some also do piecework, lacing and gluing of high-end sheepskin boots.
Phil Chapnick, owner of Malibu Cowboy, which makes and distributes the boots, returned to Colorado two years ago to oversee a hay ranch and raise horses after a two-decade stint as a Hollywood prop master.
He was looking for people to assemble the boot parts that are hand cut in Los Angeles.
“I thought I could bring something to the Valley that they’ve never been offered before and at a pretty good wage, and they don’t have to leave the house,” Chapnick said.
Some of the taller, more elaborate boots can cost up to $700. Chapnick estimated pieceworkers earn about $12 an hour.
Boot parts are delivered to Chapnick’s ranch near La Jara and then distributed to Amish and non-Amish people in the Valley. When assembled, the boots are picked up and shipped to places such as Japan and Germany.
They’re popular among celebrities. Veteran songstress Cher is pictured on her website wearing the boots and saying, “I love my Malibu Cowboys.”
“The greatest thing is they don’t even know who Cher is,” Chapnick said of his Amish helpers.
Income from farming drops
While Amish nationwide receive about 60 percent of their income from farming, 40 percent comes from nonfarming sources, Kraybill said. In 1950, 95 percent came from farming.
Erik Wesner, who has written several books on the Amish, said the transition from farming to small enterprise and working in non-Amish businesses has the Amish concerned about possible negative effects such as fragmenting the family and being exposed to more worldly influences.
Realtor Werner vividly recalls the day in 2003 when he first encountered the Amish. A group of Amishmen entered his real estate office. He recalls almost falling out of his chair.
He has since forged friendships with his Amish neighbors. When his daughter was married, Werner said, the Amish insisted on providing food for the reception. He also goes fishing with them.
“They are good people,” said Fred Winters, who lives near Manassa, a neighbor of Ivan Miller’s. “They’re kind of personal people, and you don’t pry into their affairs. They tell you what they want you to know.”
Like Amish across the nation, the Valley-area Amish insist on maintaining their tight-knit communities and draw distinctions from the outside world with their appearance and customs.
The men wear suspenders, broad-brimmed hats and beards, with clean-shaven upper lips. The women are attired in white prayer caps, solid-color dresses and aprons.
They don’t allow ownership of motorized vehicles but may ride in cars and use public transportation. They eschew TV and computers.
Being connected to the power grid is akin to connection with the outside world, something the Amish avoid. Instead they rely on propane, batteries or solar power for their appliances.
Ivan Miller retrofitted a satellite dish that was on his property when he bought it. A solar panel covers the dish, which must be moved by hand to track the sun.
On the ultimate “no-call list,” the Amish don’t permit phones in their homes, saying it disrupts family activities. But they do allow cellphones for safety and business reasons and phones in shanties outside.
Miller laughs about a man who called wanting to sell him a TV. After identifying himself as Amish, Ivan Miller said, “I asked him if he knew why Amish have so many children. He said he didn’t. I told him, ‘We don’t have TV; we just go to bed.’ “
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
Other migrations
The recent migration of the Amish to Colorado is not the first time members of the community have tried to start new lives in the state.
There have been at least three attempts by the Amish to settle on the state’s Eastern Plains.
The first was from 1909 to 1920 in Elbert County, with “church unity” issues scuttling the settlement. Drought was blamed for the 1914 folding of a 5-year-old community in the Cheyenne County town of Wild Horse, according to Erik Wesner, who has written two books about the Amish.
Most is known about an attempt by Amish to farm in the Ordway area. Lured by a realty company’s promises of a new town called Dalton, Amish families moved there in 1910.
Water piped in to irrigate the land north of the Arkansas River at first yielded good crops but led to the settlers’ departure a scant seven years later.
David Luthy, an Amish convert and historian, details the fledgling Colorado community in his book “The Amish in America: Settlements that Failed, 1840-1960.”
The irrigation system installed for the new Coloradans allowed them to grow sugar beets, alfalfa and melons. The water also carried typhoid fever. A number of Amish fell ill, and some died. Ann Schrader, The Denver Post
Who are the Amish?
They are members of a church that accepts the basic tenets of Christian faith. They emphasize values such as simplicity, community, separation of church and state, pacifism and lay leadership.
What is their history?
The Amish trace their roots to the Anabaptist movement in Switzerland in 1525 during the Protestant Reformation. The Anabaptists emphasized voluntary adult baptism and a church free from state control. Since most had been baptized as infants, they were nicknamed rebaptizers or Anabaptists. They formed their own group in 1693, and their first leader was Jakob Ammann, and thus they became known as Amish.
Do the Amish reject all modern technology?
They selectively use technology, choosing types that serve their community rather that detract from it. Rules for what is accepted are largely determined by the local church district, so there is wide variation.
Why do the Amish drive horse and buggy?
They fear the car would pull their community apart with ownership encouraging people to drive away from home often and giving youths easier access to cities. The horse and buggy also is a symbol of their separation from the larger world.
Do the Amish pay taxes?
They pay all the taxes that other people do. Congress exempted the Amish from participating in Social Security in 1965 because the Amish view it as a commercial insurance, which they oppose. They believe church members should care for one another and do not receive Social Security benefits.
Where are they educated?
About 90 percent attend private Amish schools. They typically end formal schooling at the end of eighth grade.
Source: Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College, Pa.
