Berne, Indiana

Berne (English: [bɜːn]) is a city within Monroe and Wabash townships, Adams County, Indiana, United States, located 35 miles (56 km) south of Fort Wayne.

Berne is widely known for its Swiss heritage, architecture and culture, and for its status as the "Furniture Capital of Indiana.

"[4] Berne and the surrounding area have also become known for their large Amish population (the fifth largest Amish community in the USA),[5] who speak Bernese German (a Swiss German dialect), as opposed to Pennsylvania Dutch.

[6] Berne was settled in 1852 by Mennonite immigrants who came directly from Switzerland (Münsterberg, in the Jura Mountains near Moutier)[7] and named the community after their homeland's capital.

[8] Berne initially formed around a rail depot placed on the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad lines.

The glaciers of the last Ice Age (the Pleistocene) bisected the Teays River Valley and buried it underneath at least 400 feet of glacial drift (the largest remaining piece is the Kanawha River of West Virginia).

Wells just to the east of Berne provide the much larger city of Decatur (c.10 miles north) with a large proportion of its water supply.

[18] The current locations of many wetland areas, such as Limberlost Swamp Nature Preserve, Loblolly Marsh Nature Preserve, Limberlost Park and Rainbow Bend Park lie over the old Teays River Valley.

They were the "Berne Bears", the "Geneva Cardinals", the "Hartford Gorillas", and the "Jefferson Warriors.

The library provides information services to all ages and holds over 60,000 titles, including print, digital, audio, and visual forms.

The Heritage Room of the Berne Public Library contains local history and genealogical information.

[35] The idea of building the clock tower and plaza was first raised in 2001 while the city of Berne was planning for its sesquicentennial.

The clock tower and plaza were given the name Muensterberg (Münsterberg) after the small Mennonite community in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland that Berne's first immigrants came from.

The Muensterberg Plaza built around the clock tower also features The Settler's Statue commemorating the arrival of the first settlers to the area, the only stateside Canton Tree, and a series of flowerbeds laid out to resemble common quilting patterns.

The land for the park was donated to the city of Berne by Isaac and Caroline Lehman in 1928.

Photo from Small Town Indiana photo survey.
Berne City Hall
Berne Police Station
Muensterberg Plaza & Clock Tower
Muensterberg Pavilion
Berne Canton Tree
Settlers Statute
Map of Indiana highlighting Adams County