Amish country

Branch County is one of the most heavily Amish-settled corners of Michigan — there isn’t one Amish community here but several, scattered across the county’s farm townships, and they aren’t all alike. The largest, in California Township on the county’s west side, is among the biggest and plainest settlements in the whole state: a very conservative, very plain Swiss Amish settlement, where you’ll see dirt drives, metal roofs, no electric lines, and open-topped buggies. A separate, more progressive Swiss Amish community farms the countryside near Quincy, to the east. There are smaller groups near Bronson and Kinderhook as well.

The largest of these communities are Swiss Amish, a branch with roots in the Allen and Adams County settlements of Indiana — a little different from the Pennsylvania German Amish you’ll find in other parts of the state, down to the open buggies and the plain wooden grave markers.

For someone moving here, the practical part is the roads. You’ll regularly share the back roads with horse-drawn buggies, so slow down and pass with plenty of care — especially on hills, on curves, and at dusk, when a dark buggy is hard to see. And keep an eye out for the farm stands and small shops tucked along the country roads; they’re one of the real pleasures of living out this way.