Nappanee, Indiana: Amish Country and the RV Capital

Nappanee sits in the heart of Elkhart County, which by the mid-twentieth century had become the recreational vehicle capital of the world. The combination is genuinely unusual: one of the largest Amish communities in Indiana, with dozens of church districts, exists alongside factories that build the motorhomes and travel trailers that park in campgrounds across America. The Amish, whose faith prohibits owning automobiles, turn out to be exceptional RV craftspeople, their woodworking and upholstery skills translate directly to vehicle interiors.

By the nineteen eighties, more than half the men in the Nappanee Amish settlement worked in the RV industry. Amish Acres, a restored nineteenth-century farm complex, brings the two identities together on one property: working farm, heritage museum, and threshing barn theater.