The Oddly Named Towns of Amish Country

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is known for the Old Order Amish, aka the Pennsylvania Dutch, the German Mennonite sect that forbids of such non-Biblical technology as zippers and automobiles.  Actually, the Amish population is greater elsewhere, like in LaGrange County, Indiana, but it's Lancaster County that invented Amish Tourism: every year thousands of urbanites from as far off as New York City drive down to gawk at or marvel at the Amish and their "simpler lifestyle."

The tourism includes visiting villages with quaint or accidentally risque names.  Here are some of the more interesting Lancaster County towns:


1. Intercourse, population 1,200.  When it was founded, the term "intercourse" meant merely social connection, not sex.  The town fathers have rejected any attempt to capitalize on that newer definition.  The nearest high school is Pequia, about 5 miles away.










2.  Fagleysville, with an unfortunate name that has nothing to do with gay people, is a village in Gilbertsville, population 4,000.  It's home to a bar and a crossfit gym.














3. Mount Joy, population 7,000, was founded by Scotch-Irish immigrants, and named after the ship that brought them across the Atlantic.  The local high school is named Donegal, after the province in Ireland, but oddly, its team is the Indians.


















4. Bird in Hand, pop. 402.  The Smucker Family Restaurant, which opened in 1968, is credited as the first "Amish Tourism" site in the County.














5. Ercildoun, population 100, founded by Quakers, but named after the fairyland that True Thomas encountered in the Medieval legend.
6. Conestoga, population 1,200, was founded by none other than William Penn.  It's the home of the Conestoga Sharks (rather a weird image), which has the habit of depicting the cute guys being hidden behind girls, or with girls in their arms. 












You can't get a decent photo crop.




















I've tried.


7. Blue Ball,population 400,  founded hundreds of years before the slang term "blue balls" was invented.  It was the name of a tavern with a blue ball hanging over the door, a carryover from the days when people couldn't read, so you put a descriptive picture or statue over the door.











8. Ephrata, named after the Biblical city, with a population of 13,000.  It's the site of a utopian community, the Ephrata Cloister founded in 1728.  The Ephratans were celibate and vegetarian, and followed strict discipline.

Today the high school yearbook is called the Cloisterette, but the team is the Mountaineers.