In 1910, nobody came to “Amish Country” as a tourist. The Amish way of life, and especially their farming practices, weren’t all that remarkable. Everyone farmed with horses. 1920, ‘30, still pretty unremarkable. Then in the 1940s, people started to wonder about the Amish. By the 1950s Lancaster County was “on the map” for tourists, and the Amish countryside was well and truly a sight to see. This was because as the rest of the country left horses and mules behind, farming with tractors, driving in cars, and fashions of dress changing rapidly, the Amish stayed put. People wondered “Why?”
These early days of tourism to the county were a bit of a blur. Visitors started arriving, essentially before there was much infrastructure in place to welcome them. Services for tourists thus sprang up haphazardly, without much planning or research. “Hang a shingle” was the basic business plan for these new enterprises.
This “wild west gunslinger” kind of atmosphere leads to some rather intriguing early attractions. Most people today wouldn’t remember the PA Dutch Dugout, but for a brief moment in time, it was The Scene in Lancaster County. In 1951, an advertisement in the Newspaper promoted the goings-on available to visitors at this Route 30 site:
- Free Dancing
- Exquisite PA Dutch Gifts
- Clever Souvenirs
- Delicious Home-Cooked Food
- Complete Fountain Service
- Exhibit of Authentic Historical Objects
And, especially notable to the zeitgeist of the Cold War era, the advertisement also proudly proclaimed the Dugout as Lancaster County’s only public Atomic Bomb shelter, well-stocked with food, just in case the Soviet Union launched a missile while you were on vacation.
— Clinton Martin