Swiss Heritage Village and Museum

05/23/2026

The numbers are in! We’re thrilled to report that this year’s Swiss Heritage benefit auction was our best on record! Our sincere gratitude goes out to:

Amish Country Popcorn, Bags by Carolyn, Amy’s Professional Hair Design, Pine Lake, The White Cottage, McDonald’s, Adams County Memorial Hospital, Alpine Rose coffee shop, Amstutz Construction, Amy’s Photography, Auto Tool & Supply, the Berne Chamber of Commerce, Berne Community Market, Berne Dining Restaurant, Berne Ready Mix, Berne Trading Company, Berne Witness, Bernhaus Furniture, Best One of Monroe, Betty Von Gunten, Bixler Insurance, Bollenbacher & Associates, Casey’s of Geneva, Classic Plus Auto Sales, Clauser Furniture, Dee Zerts Ice Cream, E P Graphics, Earthen Treasures, East of Chicago Pizza, Edelweiss, El Carreton, Eldon’s Auto Repair, Everence Financial, Mark & Susan Snowden, Everett Family Restaurant, Faith & Life Bookstore, FCC Adams, Fear Powersports, Fisher Dental, Fulton & Main, Funkee Monkee, Gia & Co, Graber Insurance, Habegger Ace Lumber, Habegger Furniture, Hilty Lumber, Johnson’s Junction, Kaup Pharmacy, Kuhn’s Den, Lehman & Bixler, Lehman Feed Mill, Liechty Bros., Limberlost Construction, Linda Lehman, Lucky China, M&M Market, Manley Meats, Mark & Susan Snowden, Mercer Savings Bank, Millenia Barber Shop, Morningstar Dream, Myers Plumbing, Pizza Hut of Berne, Pizza King of Berne, Poseidon Barge, Red Gold, Reynolds Chiropractic, Richard’s Jewelry, Ringger Soft Water, Secure Automotive, Shetler Housewares, Simons Manufacturing, Smith Bros., Spare Time Lanes, Sport Form, Sprunger & Sprunger, Swiss City Vans, Swiss Deli Poplar Quik Stop, The Filling Station, Troyer’s, Truland Equipment, US Aggregates, Visual Changes, Wabash Valley Golf Club, White Cottage Sweet Shop, Zwick Jahn Yager Funeral, First Bank of Berne, H&B Golf, and Miz Lehman.

We also want to thank all individual donors who provided items, checks, or their volunteer presence in helping to make the auction a reality. Finally, thank you to everyone from the community who came out to bid, just to see, to eat supper, or merely to talk with your friends at our event. It’s always a fun time.

Your continued support for over 40 years has allowed us to collect, preserve, teach, and share our local history with children and adults from across the region, the state, the country, and even around the world. It’s our shared love for this connection to the past that drives us toward the future. Thank you, everyone in our community, once again!

We’ll see you at our Haystack Luncheon on June 14!

05/18/2026

Our annual benefit auction is tomorrow! We have quite the spread thanks to some late-coming donations. Thanks again to everyone who donated, and for everyone who comes out starting at 5 PM on Tuesday, May 19 (item viewing begins at 3 PM). We have so many items that we’re limited by Facebook’s character count! Here’s a summary of everything up for bid!

Gift cards, certificates, and the like:

Sport Form, Adams Memorial Health Club (3 months), Amy’s Professional (12x tanning visits and/or a set of nails), Casey’s, FCC (a lavish gift basket of local items and credit), Red Gold (a selection of their goods), Earthen Treasures (goodie bags), Lucky China, Everett Family, Kuhn’s Den, Dee Zerts, Berne Community Market, Manley Meats, Sprunger & Sprunger (certificate of service for will/trust), Berne Witness (1 year), Pine Lake (4x passes), The White Cottage (arrangement of sweets), Swiss City Vans (3 day 15 seat van rental), US Aggregates (a truckload of stone, delivered in-county), Johnson’s Junction (goodie bag), and more!

MULTIPLE gift cards and certificates are available from:

Pizza King (5x pizzas), Fulton & Main (3x party gift cards), The Filling Station (3x), Wabash Valley Golf Club (2x), M&M’s (2x), El Carreton (2x) Pizza Hut (5x pizzas), McDonald’s (5x $20), East of Chicago (2x), Berne Dining (4x), Secure Automotive (2x), Reynolds Chiropractic (2x), Alpine Rose (2x), Amy Sprunger Photography (2x), Troyer’s (2x), and more!

Other items include:

Bird seed, grass seed, feed scoops, potting mix, a yard sprayer, collectors’ plates, a selection of western films, books and book collections, vintage sheet music, stamps for crafting, homemade tote bags and a scarf, Yeti tumblers, clothes (t-shirts & sweatshirts), an American Legion flag, ice skates, roller blades, multiple ratchet sets, a hand warmer, a fishing rod, garden hoses (varying lengths), two office printer-scanner-copiers, ratchet straps, impact bit sets, chain oil, string trimmer refills, a fire extinguisher & blankets, cases of canned beef and pork, a case of DampRid, a pushbroom and shovel, high-end sunglasses, a gold and emerald necklace, a 3 ton floor jack, and more!

Home decor includes a decorative lantern, candleholder set, an area rug, a large armchair, wind chimes, a wooden Amazing Grace plaque, a self-care kit, a mirrored wall candleholder, a silk flower arrangement, an outdoor cement angel, a stainless steel stock pot, a high-end sink faucet, a large vinyl bench, and a new entry today–an enormous supply of crafting goods from Annie’s!

Don’t forget the homemade pies, honey, and cookies! See you tomorrow!

05/16/2026

More items keep coming in! New arrivals include:

Two handmade bags from Bags by Carolyn, collectible plates, vintage sheet music, a collection of classic western movies, pints of locally gathered honey (great for your allergies!), popcorn, seasonings, and a popping kit from Amish Country Popcorn, ice skates, roller blades, a coat rack shelf, and more!

Our benefit auction on Tuesday, May 19 at 5 PM is really shaping up. We’ll see you then!

05/13/2026

More items are still coming in, so we hope to see you next Tuesday at 5 PM!

05/13/2026

Here are more pictures of the items we’ll have next Tuesday.

05/13/2026

Apparently, Facebook doesn’t allow anyone to see the other TWELVE pictures of items up for auction we previously posted! As such, we’ll try to post them all successively.

05/10/2026

Every year, Swiss Heritage Village & Museum holds a benefit auction. Area businesses and individuals come together to donate their goods, products, services, and even the love from their own kitchens for a public auction. All proceeds go directly to programming at Swiss Heritage Village, allowing us to continue to bring our famous annual events to the community. Things like our Swiss Days programming–with the classic car show, demonstrations of life in the 1800s, and our famous apple dumplings–Education Day–where over 1,400 area 4th graders come to play games, learn about Indiana history, and see reenactors live as the first settlers did–and so much more.

This year, our auction is on Tuesday, May 19, at 5 PM in our Sweitzer barn. Auction lots will be available for early viewing starting at 3 PM. Supper will also be available by donation; soup and sandwiches with strawberries and ice cream to follow. To showcase what we’ll have for auction, take a look at the attached pictures. Our auction will also include MANY gift cards for food, products, or services from area businesses. You can peruse them along with the items starting at 3 on Tuesday.

Donations are still coming in, so even this list is incomplete! We at Swiss Heritage Village extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone and who donated to our auction, and we also thank everyone who comes out to bid on these great items. You help keep history alive! These include, but are not limited to:

Adams County Memorial Hospital, Alpine Rose coffee shop, Amstutz Construction, Amy’s Photography, Auto Tool & Supply, the Berne Chamber of Commerce, Berne Community Market, Berne Dining Restaurant, Berne Ready Mix, Berne Trading Company, Berne Witness, Bernhaus Furniture, Best One of Monroe, Betty Von Gunten, Bixler Insurance, Bollenbacher & Associates, Casey’s of Geneva, Classic Plus Auto Sales, Clauser Furniture, Dee Zerts Ice Cream, E P Graphics, Earthen Treasures, East of Chicago Pizza, Edelweiss, El Carreton, Eldon’s Auto Repair, Everence Financial, Everett Family Restaurant, Faith & Life Bookstore, FCC Adams, Fear Powersports, Fisher Dental, Fulton & Main, Funkee Monkee, Gia & Co, Graber Insurance, Habegger Ace Lumber, Habegger Furniture, Hilty Lumber, Johnson’s Junction, Kaup Pharmacy, Kuhn’s Den, Lehman & Bixler, Lehman Feed Mill, Liechty Bros., Limberlost Construction, Linda Lehman, Lucky China, M&M Market, Manley Meats, Mark & Susan Snowden, Mercer Savings Bank, Millenia Barber Shop, Morningstar Dream, Myers Plumbing, Pizza Hut of Berne, Pizza King of Berne, Poseidon Barge, Red Gold, Reynolds Chiropractic, Richard’s Jewelry, Ringger Soft Water, Secure Automotive, Shetler Housewares, Simons Manufacturing, Smith Bros., Spare Time Lanes, Sport Form, Sprunger & Sprunger, Swiss City Vans, Swiss Deli Poplar Quik Stop, The Filling Station, Troyer’s, Truland Equipment, US Aggregates, Visual Changes, Wabash Valley Golf Club, White Cottage Sweet Shop, Zwick Jahn Yager Funeral, and more!

And thank you to Miz Lehman for volunteering as auctioneers. See you on Tuesday, May 19!

04/27/2026

Spring has sprung at Swiss Heritage! Our season begins soon!

Saturdays in May, Swiss Heritage Village & Museum will open from 10 AM to 4 PM for tours of the grounds and indoor museum. From June to October, we’ll be open daily (except Sundays and holidays) at that time, too.

And don’t forget; our annual benefit auction will be May 19! More details on that as we get closer, including the full bevy of donated goods and services from around the area. Thank you to everyone who contributed, everyone who attends the auction, and to everyone who will visit Swiss Heritage this year!

02/23/2026

The 2026 event calendar for Swiss Heritage Village is now official! We hope to see you at one (or all!) of our events this year, and you can always stop by for a tour on your own! Thank you to everyone who helps us preserve our history and teach new generations about the past.

01/06/2026

Swiss Heritage Village will be holding its annual meeting on Tuesday, January 13 at 7 PM in the First Mennonite Church. Our guest speaker will be Ben Sprunger, who will talk about the histories of the buildings of downtown Berne. Refreshments will be provided. Thank you to all of our donors, customers, benefactors, and the community for your support!

Send a message to learn more

12/16/2025

On Christmas Eve, Swiss Heritage Village welcomes you for a traditional church service in our historic Baumgartener church. Join us at either 6 PM or 7:30 PM for fellowship, song, and the reading of the nativity in English and German. Merry Christmas to all, and we hope to see you then!