Dalton – Here, the economic news travels slowly, by word of mouth and horse and buggy.
It filters through Mishler’s Country Store, where bills are totaled on battered manual adding machines and kerosene lamps light the aisles when the sun goes down. It circulates through the Salemville Cheese Cooperative, where families cart in fresh milk, straight from the farm.
And it spreads to Raymond Bontrager’s Maple Lane Woodshop, where a wood fire warms craftsmen who turn planks of oak, maple, cherry and pine into exquisite pieces of furniture. "We hear about it all the time from the customers," Bontrager says.
The Old Order Amish who live in this patch of central Wisconsin are dealing with America’s economic woes the only way they know how: with hard work.