AMANA COLONIES, Iowa — Tourists flock every year to the Amana Colonies to see beautiful stone buildings, eat family-style food and enjoy the tranquility and beauty this historical Iowa spot has to offer.

The first stop for many is the Visitors’ Center. It takes a second glance to realize the beautifully restored corncrib in the center. The restoration of the corncrib began in 2004.

Using a grant the Amana Colonies Historical Sites Foundation was awarded in 2003, the corncrib that was built in 1945 began to see new life. More than 10,000 board feet of hickory harvested from Amana timber was used in restoring this building. Care was taken to preserve most of the structural elements of the corncrib, including the original wagon hoist, grain chutes and bin walls.

Originally the corncrib was used as a place to store grain from fields surrounding the colonies. When the corncrib was built, Amana operated as seven separate farms. Each side of the corncrib held 7,500 bushels of ears and the upper level bins held about 3,300 bushels of shelled corn or oats, in three separate bins.

Grinding and mixing the grain happened at the east end of the building and a conveyer on the south side was used to move ear corn to the grinder. Amana Farms had it all planned out – the grain harvested in the nearby fields was mixed with commercial bagged feed and then used to feed Amana livestock.

The seven separate farms all merged eventually into one large farm, but the historical information shares that this corncrib was still used to store excess grain into the 1980s.

The Amana Colonies are a group of settlements of German Pietists in Iowa, comprising seven villages. Calling themselves the Ebenezer Society or the Community of True Inspiration, they first settled in New York near Buffalo in what is now the town of West Seneca. However, in order to live out their beliefs in more isolated surroundings, they moved west to east-central Iowa (near present-day Iowa City) in 1855. They lived a communal life until the mid-1930s.

The Amana Colonies Visitors Center provides daily walking tours at 11 a.m. Monday-Friday, seasonally. The cost is $7 per person, children under 12 are $5 and those under age 5 are free. “Guten Appetit” is a three- to four-hour walking tour twice a month that is a sampling of the many restaurants, specialty food shops, wineries and brewery. Cost is $25 per person, and reservations are required.

To learn more or plan your trip, visit http://amanacolonies.com