Amana, Iowa is the home of the eponymous appliance company; everyone knows that. But what we didn’t know is that Amana is also the site of one of the longest surviving 19th Century utopian communities – the Amana Colony. Founded by German immigrants in the 1850s, who had run out of land in New York State, this large settlement of more than 25,000 acres and seven villages, centered on a religion that emphasized simplicity, humility, and productive labor. The commune formally ended by mutual agreement in the 1930s due to a foundering economy and tensions among its members over administrative policy. They then adopted a clever market strategy, which severed the church from the economic aspects of the community and then put ownership of the principal assets, land and factories, into a joint stock corporation called the Amana Society, which still exists.

The villages today give tourists a glimpse of life in the colony and preserve its history. We spent a few hours in the main village of Amana. We picnicked next to the old railroad station in a quiet area. Surrounded by fields as far as the horizon and with only abandoned buildings near us, for a few minutes we were transported back in time to when this little place was the epicenter of the lives of its citizens, working from before dawn at the tasks of the community and gathering for common meals twice a day.