Swiss Heritage Village and Museum

08/31/2026

Thank you for the praise and for attending our Heritage Festival for so many years! It has a little something for everyone, so mark your calendars. If you’re still on the fence about coming and have a fourth grader who’ll be here the Friday before the Festival, just ask how much fun it was that day. They’ll probably want to come back!

08/29/2026

Swiss Heritage Village & Museum has the opportunity to acquire and preserve the famous caboose from the Back 40 Junction restaurant in Decatur! For 51 years, the iconic red caboose at the Back 40 Junction welcomed families, friends and visitors from throughout our community. With the restaurant's closing, Swiss Heritage Village & Museum has been presented with a unique opportunity: to save this beloved piece of local history and give it a permanent home where it can be enjoyed for generations to come.
Since 1985, Swiss Heritage Village has been committed to preserving the stories, buildings, and artifacts that make Berne and southern Adams County special. Over a dozen historic buildings have been carefully relocated to our grounds, restored, and transformed into places where visitors can experience what life was like in our community's early years. Now we have the opportunity to do the same for the Back 40 Junction caboose, and we need your help.

1. Save the Caboose
Following the auction of the Back 40 Junction property, the caboose became available for purchase. Swiss Heritage now has an opportunity to acquire it, but additional funding is needed to make that possible. With the support of local businesses, organizations and community members, we can ensure this familiar piece of Adams County history is preserved rather than lost.

2. Bring It Home
Once purchased, the caboose will travel from Decatur to its new home at Swiss Heritage Village in Berne. Moving historic structures is something Swiss Heritage knows well. The caboose will be placed on our existing stretch of railroad track, helping us tell the story of the railroad that once traveled through Berne along what is now Swiss Way.

3. Restore & Preserve for Future Generations
After the caboose arrives, restoration will begin. The exterior will be repaired, while the interior will be cleaned, painted, and furnished to represent what visitors may have seen inside a caboose around 1896. The yellow railway speeder accompanying the caboose will also be restored, adding another unique piece to the railroad story we can share with visitors.

Swiss Heritage Village & Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Swiss and Christian heritage of Berne, Indiana, and southern Adams County through education and discovery. Since 1985, the Village has preserved historic buildings, artifacts, documents and community traditions so they can continue to educate and inspire future generations.
Your tax-deductible gift or corporate sponsorship will directly support the purchase, relocation, restoration, and maintenance of this historic caboose. This is more than moving an old railcar. It is an opportunity to preserve a piece of our community's story–one that holds memories for countless families–and give it a new purpose for generations yet to come.

Sponsorship Opportunities
� $3,000+ | Stationmaster
Your name or business logo will appear on the caboose banner during the move, on social media in Swiss Heritage publications about the event, and on the caboose plaque once the project is complete.
� $2,000+ | Engineer
Your (business) name will appear on the caboose banner during the move, on social media in Swiss Heritage publications about the event, and on the caboose plaque once the project is complete.
� $1,000+ | Conductor
Your (business) name will appear on social media in Swiss Heritage publications about the event and on the caboose plaque once the project is complete.
� $500+ | Ticket Agent
Your (business) name will appear on the caboose plaque once the project is complete.

Gifts of every size are meaningful and will help us bring this piece of Adams County history home. All donors will be recognized according to their wishes.

If you are interested in sponsoring or donating to this cause, please call (260) 589-8007, e-mail [email protected], or visit the Village directly at 1200 Swiss Way in Berne, Indiana. You can also visit our website to view more information about our plan of operations! See https://swissheritage.org/caboose.html

Please DO NOT respond to ANY comments here stating they will “take donations” by any method other than these listed above. They will be scammers.

08/29/2026

EDUCATION DAY

For over 30 years, Swiss Heritage Village & Museum has hosted a private Education Day each September. As part of their unit on the history of Indiana, nearly 1,400 area 4th graders will visit our grounds this year. Docents in each of our buildings highlight a different part of life in the late 1800s, from school to church to home to work. Demonstrators and reenactors on the grounds showcase interactive exhibits of leatherworking, tin punching, ropemaking, sawdust dolls, goat milking, candle dipping, cattail ducks, German paper cutting, and more!
At 6 PM on Friday, everyone is welcome to the horse pull, where ponies and draft horses will compete. Hummel’s Meats & More will be on hand (and on Saturday during the Festival) to provide burgers, hot dogs, and bratwurst with sauerkraut!

HERITAGE FESTIVAL

After Education Day, Swiss Heritage Village opens its doors to the public on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, for our Heritage Festival! The games and interactive experiences from Education Day return, as well as several of the demonstrators and reenactors. Kids and adults of all ages can play games, make handcrafts, and learn about our history in the buildings on our grounds.
Christy & Zack Wilson and their family will be singing in the Baumgartner Church at 11 AM and 1 PM. We’ll be making apple cider at the world’s largest single-beam cider press at 2 PM, and fresh apple butter will be ready around 3 PM.

If you would like to become a demonstrator or reenactor for us on Education Day or during the Heritage Festival, we welcome the inclusion of historic exhibits new to our event. Remember how much fun Education Day was from your own childhood? Want to become a volunteer to bring that joy to new generations? To help this year, next year, or beyond, we’d love to have you! Contact us at (260) 589-8007, by e-mail at [email protected], or stop by the Village at 1200 Swiss Way to speak in person.

Thank you, and we hope to see you at the Festival!

08/29/2026

The Meyer Family ✨

08/01/2026

Swiss Days 2026 was a wonderful time! The weather was beautiful, our turnout was great, and we hope everyone involved–from volunteers to visitors–had a lot of fun. Some of our docents could barely catch their breath, as people kept pouring in to our buildings to learn about life in the mid-1800s and the history of our region. Our Antique Tractor & Engine Show saw some amazing new entries, and we’re grateful to all those volunteers who have a passion for these mechanisms and their development from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the present. Without the threat of hail in the forecast (like last year), our Classic Car, Truck, & Bike show also had a much larger turnout!

What’s more, our early report of the number of apple dumplings we sold was low! It was roughly 700 this year! All proceeds for our events go right back to the preservation and maintenance of Swiss Heritage Village and its historic buildings and museum. For over 40 years, we have kept the history of our earliest days alive, and we hope to continue this for a long time. We’re so happy that our volunteers love to come out to help us put on our annual events, and we’d like to thank them all.

Jason & Val Yoder, Tim & Michelle LeFever, Jeff & Sonny Koons, Jerry & Betty Burke, Steve & Penny Haines, Ben, Sue, & Jason Bluhm, Claudia Claussen, Carol Reef Elzey, Gwen Hewitt, and John & Laura Kalsle.

Anyone who wants to exhibit their car, tractor, or engine during our festivities, and any individual vendors who’d like to come out to our grounds that weekend, we welcome you for next year! We also want to take this opportunity to thank all of our business sponsors for Swiss Days and the Classic Car Show. Your contributions allow us to be more than just a venue; we become a destination that these exhibitors love to visit, want to return, and about which they tell their friends so that we can grow and expand. These are:

Best One of Monroe, Moser Motor Sales, Schnitz Motorsports, Shifferly Automotive, NAPA, O’Reilly, Secure Automotive, Fear Powersports, C&P Precision, the Berne Witness, Lehman Feed Mill, Brown Seeds LLC, Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Bixler Insurance, Berne Ready Mix, Decatur Dental Services, Fischer Dental, Pizza Hut of Berne, East of Chicago of Berne, Fulton & Main, and Eichhorn Jewelry.

Thank you again, and we’ll see you for Swiss Days next year! Our next event will be the Heritage Festival in September! Please look forward to it!

07/21/2026

Swiss Days is almost here! In addition to all our other events, we’d like to announce a few last minute details.

First, our food truck on Friday will be Pappies Smokehouse & Lunch Box! Build your own pork, chicken, or brisket sandwich or hot dog with toppings and sides!

Saturday, our food truck will be Yudi’s Kitchen! Tacos, quesadillas, burritos, nachos, and all the traditional appetizers.

Finally, and once again, our annual horse pull has been moved to September due to a history of heat delays in July. Instead, at 6 PM on Friday we will have a garden tractor pull out on the track at Swiss Heritage.

Thank you to our volunteers, visitors, vendors, demonstrators, and participants in the car and tractor shows! It’s going to be a gorgeous weekend.

07/18/2026

Swiss Days is a week away! Looks like it’ll be partly cloudy and in the low 80s next Friday and Saturday. That’s perfect weather to come out to Swiss Heritage Village & Museum during your Swiss Days journey for…

~ THE ANTIQUE TRACTOR & ENGINE SHOW! ~

Friday & Saturday a selection of historic tractor and engine designs will be on display, with some chugging away like they did almost a century ago! As an added bonus, there will be a Garden Tractor Pull on Friday at 6 PM! We will also have a large display of collected ride-on pedal tractors!

~ THE CLASSIC CAR, TRUCK, & BIKE SHOW! ~

Saturday only, from 9-2, come see historic, modern, exotic, and unique vehicles!

~ MUSEUM, DEMONSTRATIONS, & GROUNDS! ~

FREE tours of our air conditioned museum and the historic buildings on our grounds will let you step back in time to the mid-1800s, as docents guide you through the daily life of the original settlers of the region.

~ THE FAMOUS ORIGINAL SWISS DAYS APPLE DUMPLING! ~

Before you hop on the shuttle to go back downtown, don’t forget to stop by the big red barn for our classic apple dumpling with ice cream and cinnamon sauce! We have take-home trays, so grab them or your whole family if you don’t have time to dine with us.

All proceeds from donations and dumplings go directly toward maintaining Swiss Heritage Village & Museum, bringing annual events and education to young and old, year after year. Thank you!

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And ONCE AGAIN, I have forgotten that Facebook doesn’t let you see any more than five photos per post, so everything we showcased earlier has been eaten. Check out these sneak peeks from previous years!

07/13/2026

Once again, due to the excessive heat this week, we will be open only from 10 AM to Noon on Tuesday through Saturday of this week.

Stay cool! Stay hydrated!

Once the rain moves through this weekend, Swiss Days week looks a little cooler, so we will resume normal hours then. We hope to see you at Swiss Heritage Village on Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th during Swiss Days! Hop on the shuttle if you don’t want to lose your parking space; it’ll take you right out!

Send a message to learn more

07/11/2026

Swiss Days is fast approaching, and Swiss Heritage Village is getting ready! On Friday and Saturday, July 24 & 25, hop on the shuttle downtown to be brought to our grounds. Or drive straight out to 1200 Swiss Way in Berne for…

~ THE ANTIQUE TRACTOR & ENGINE SHOW! ~

All day, Friday & Saturday, we’ll have a selection of historic tractor and engine designs, dating back to the start of the 20th century and beyond. Come speak to the men whose passion restored these classic farm implements and watch some of them in action! We’ll also be hosting a large collection of pedal tractors (the kind you ride) for your viewing pleasure.

~ MUSEUM, DEMONSTRATIONS, & GROUNDS! ~

The Village opens its grounds and museum for FREE on Swiss Days! Visit a docent in each of our historic buildings to learn about how Indiana settlers lived in the mid-1800s. Have a dumpling in the barn, and then cool off in our air-conditioned museum as you see even more local exhibits!

~ THE CLASSIC CAR, TRUCK, & BIKE SHOW! ~

Saturday only, from 9-2, the Village will host a selection of historic, modern, exotic, and unique vehicles! Revisit the days when we used to see some real color, style, and soul on the road!

~ THE FAMOUS ORIGINAL SWISS DAYS APPLE DUMPLING! ~

Beat the heat with a classic sweet treat! Grab an apple dumpling plain as can be, with all the trimmings (cinnamon sauce and ice cream), or however you like. Dine in right at the barn or take some home to your family! We have containers for carry-out! All proceeds from dumplings or donations go directly back to maintaining Swiss Heritage Village & Museum to bring annual events and education to young and old, year after year. Thank you!

~ IMPORTANT NOTICE ~

Due to many years of delays related to afternoon heat or rainstorms in July, our annual pony & horse pull has been permanently moved! This year it will be on Friday, September 11, the day before our Heritage Festival. Please stay tuned for more about the pony & horse pull as that date approaches, and more about our Swiss Days content as we get closer.