Why recount the story of the Great Black Swamp here? Simply because it's an important part of who we are: a once, uninhabitable area that our ancestors helped turn into some of the most fertile farmland in the world. 

In fact, some of the earliest American settlers bypassed the region altogether in search of a friendlier place to live. Stories of wolves and snakes were plentiful, and the mosquitoes were as thick as the forest itself. Many travelers ventured into the region and were never seen again.

Then, in the fall of 1834, a small band of Amish-Mennonite peasants scouted the region and set about the task of taming the Great Black Swamp, which at that time was anything but great.

Using only what the land had to offer, these immigrants built a single cabin to house their entire group. Conditions were rough. But over the next ten years, the settlers would move countless tons of mud in order to dig a hundred miles of drainage ditches. Trees were felled and the land cleared even though the wet earth made moving the logs torturously slow.

Today, the area is one of the finest agricultural regions in America. And it's the spirit of those original settlers that Erie Sauder, himself a third-generation descendant of those hearty souls, managed to recreate at Historic Sauder Village. A spirit we still honor today.