One of the largest Wisconsin Amish settlements is located in the southwest corner of the state – between the city of Cashton and the village of Ontario. This settlement in in the heart of the Driftless Area and the landscape is one of successive ridges and valleys that break the useable farmland into small parcels that are not well suited to modern, large-scale farming, but are perfect for the traditional Amish farming that uses horsepower from real horses. We recently drove through the Cashton Amish area during late June, perfect timing to see the Amish mowing hay, pitching it into one huge mound on a horse drawn wagon, then driving that wagon down a local road toward their barn. To see this old fashioned farm work is to step back 100 years in time. Much of it seems to be a Norman Rockwell painting come to life.

Amish gentleman hid from camera

The Cashton settlement also offer many skilled craftsmen and craftswomen producing very high quality furniture, baskets, quilts, candy and much more. There are a couple of non-Amish opoerated consignments shops in or near Cashton that offer the products of many of the local Amish. You can also pick up a map of the settlement and make direct visits to the workshops of the individual Amish families.

Amish Goods

The Inn at Lonesome Hollow  is a nearby Bed and Breakfast that can provide area visitors with information about the Amish. Most of the bedrooms furniture at the Inn at Lonesome Hollow was made by Amish furniture makers in Cashton. Amish quilts are on many of the beds.

Room at Inn at Lonesome Hollow

Especially interesting is the Cashton settlement live Amish auction which takes place each Labor Day. Furniture, quilts, hand-made toys, and Amish produce are all auctioned in a 4-6 hr long event that will give a visitor the feel of having Amish neighbors and friends. We hope that many who read this will be intrigued and will tour the beautiful Amish area around Cashton and attend this great Amish auction.

Nora and Pete

Tags: Add new tag, Amish, wisconsin bed and breakfast

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 9:02 am and is filed under Nearby Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.