The Mill Race passing through Middle Amana Photograph courtesy of the Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau

Many of the original buildings within the Amana Colonies have been preserved and demonstrate the traditional simplicity characteristic of the Colonies Photograph courtesy of the Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau

This itinerary highlights the landscapes and elegantly simple, distinctive architecture of communal Amana, a period which lasted from 1855 to 1932. Amana villages originally consisted of 40 to 100 buildings. Visitors can stroll through Amana, the largest of the seven villages, and visit the Amana Woolen Mill and Amana Furniture Shop, originally a calico mill--two very important industries for the colonies. After learning more about this settlement's history and culture at the Museum of Amana History, visitors can enjoy a traditional German family-style meal at the Colony Inn Restaurant or the Ox Yoke Inn. Touring the other villages by car, visitors will pass through historic farmland and observe the imprint the colonists made on their landscape at places such as the Mill Race, a canal dug to provide waterpower for the mills, the Lily Lake, and groves of trees called Schulwalds. Barns and agricultural buildings were clustered together at the edge of each village; examples of this can be seen in West Amana, South Amana , and High Amana. Each village contained numerous dwellings, such as those in Homestead. Groups of about 30-40 people ate their meals at one of several village kitchens, like one in Middle Amana that is now the Communal Kitchen Museum. Adjacent to this building are Hahn's Hearth Oven Bakery, one of the several village bakeries that supplied fresh bread to the kitchens daily, and the Coopershop Museum, an example of the many trade buildings that were vital to daily life in Amana. Every village also had a general store, such as those in High Amana and West Amana, and a school for children ages 7-14. But of course the focus of the colonists' lives was their religion, and a church was an essential element of each village where services were held 11 times a week. The Amana Colonies have long been a popular destination for tourists, who were interested in learning about communal life. Several of these historic hotels and other historic communal buildings continue to offer lodging today, including the Die Heimat Country Inn, Lower South Hotel, and the Baeckerei Bed and Breakfast.

A historic view of Amana Village on a Sunday during the early 20th century Photograph courtesy of the Amana Heritage Society

The Amana Colonies itinerary offers numerous ways to discover the historic properties that played important roles in the way the community functioned. Each property features a brief description of the place's significance, color and historic photographs, and public accessibility information. At the bottom of each page the visitor will also find a navigation bar containing links to four essays that explain more about Utopias in America, the Origins of the Colonies, Communal Amana, and Amana Colonies Today. These essays provide historical background, or "contexts," for many of the places included in the itinerary. The itinerary can be viewed online, or printed out if you plan to visit eastern Iowa in person.

Created through a partnership, the Amana Colonies itinerary is an example of a new and exciting cooperative project. As part of the Department of the Interior's strategy to revitalize communities by promoting public awareness of history and encouraging tourists to visit historic places throughout the nation, the National Register of Historic Places is cooperating with communities, regions and Heritage Areas throughout the United States to create online travel itineraries. Using places listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the itineraries help potential visitors plan their next trip by highlighting the amazing diversity of this country's historic places and supplying accessibility information for each featured site. In the Learn More section, the itineraries link to regional and local web sites that provide visitors with further information regarding cultural events, special activities, and lodging and dining possibilities.

The Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau is the seventh of more than 30 organizations working directly with the National Register of Historic Places to create travel itineraries. Additional itineraries will debut online in the future. The National Register of Historic Places and the Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau hope you enjoy this virtual travel itinerary of the historic places in the Amana Colonies. If you have any comments or questions, please just click on the provided e-mail address, "comments or questions" located at the bottom of each page