What Happens When the Amish Move Into a Dying Small American Town?
Silent Atlas
19,751 views
In 1994, the town of Fort Fairfield, Maine, began to fade. Then the Amish arrived, and what happened next was not the comeback anyone might expect.
When Loring Air Force Base closed, this corner of Aroostook County lost its economic foundation. Farms became consolidated, young people moved away, and a high school that once graduated 90 students was eventually down to a class of just 22. Then a Swartzentruber family from New York bought a bus ticket north, searching for affordable farmland where their children could still build a future.
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This is the full story of what actually happens when the Amish move into a dying American town: how one of the fastest-growing plain communities in the country continues getting priced out of Lancaster County and upstate New York, how one settlement transformed cheap, overlooked farmland into a community of more than 300 people, one barn at a time, and what that transformation really costs.
It is also an honest look at why the old town never fully returns, and where the map of Amish America may be changing next.
#Amish #AmishLife #AmishCommunity #AmishCountry #AmishAmerica #RuralAmerica #SmallTownAmerica #AmericanSmallTowns #RuralLife #AmishDocumentary #AmishHistory
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What Happens When the Amish Move Into a Dying Small American Town?
Silent Atlas
19,751 views
In 1994, the town of Fort Fairfield, Maine, began to fade. Then the Amish arrived, and what happened next was not the comeback anyone might expect.
When Loring Air Force Base closed, this corner of Aroostook County lost its economic foundation. Farms became consolidated, young people moved away, and a high school that once graduated 90 students was eventually down to a class of just 22. Then a Swartzentruber family from New York bought a bus ticket north, searching for affordable farmland where their children could still build a future.
Enjoyed this one? Discover more about how rural America is really changing, every week
This is the full story of what actually happens when the Amish move into a dying American town: how one of the fastest-growing plain communities in the country continues getting priced out of Lancaster County and upstate New York, how one settlement transformed cheap, overlooked farmland into a community of more than 300 people, one barn at a time, and what that transformation really costs.
It is also an honest look at why the old town never fully returns, and where the map of Amish America may be changing next.
#Amish #AmishLife #AmishCommunity #AmishCountry #AmishAmerica #RuralAmerica #SmallTownAmerica #AmericanSmallTowns #RuralLife #AmishDocumentary #AmishHistory