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ChURChES AND CEMETERIES

There are 37 churches and 72 cemeteries
along the Byway corridor (excluding prehistoric
burial sites). Many churches and cemeteries
are associated with specific cultural groups.
Outside the Amanas, ethnically influenced
churches and cemeteries include the Titler
Cemetery; the Wright Grave, an isolated 1854
child’s burial site; First Lutheran (Norwegian)
Cemetery; Dvorak Cemetery, Stayskal
Cemetery; St. Joseph’s Church and Cemetery;
St. Michael’s Catholic Church; Mesquakie
Friends Church; and Mesquakie Indian
Assembly of God. There are at least four
Meskwaki cemeteries on the Settlement.

Five churches in Belle Plaine have been
recommended as contributing to a potential
National Register of Historic Places district;
those churches were all constructed between
1880 and 1927. The Lenox Township Church
of the New Jerusalem is also on the NRHP.

Each of the seven villages of the Amana
Colonies has a somber, simple, and neat
graveyard. The deceased still are interred
in chronological order of death. There are
no family plots. Likewise, each village has a
church, two of which are still used as places
of worship by the Amana Church Society.
The Homestead Church today functions as
the Community Church Museum. In addition
to buildings erected specifically as churches,
many communal residences contained a
worship area. At least 17 buildings with a
church room (a.k.a., an assembly hall or
meeting area) are still standing.