MEDIA RELEASE__John Jantzen and Wendy Chappell-Dick gave themselves a challenge: learn 50 songs in celebration of America 250! Popular in America from colonial times to the Civil War, these are the songs of immigrants, Native Americans, and enslaved African Americans about life, faith, work, and play, all accompanied by dulcimer, guitar, spoons, and harmonica.
Many will recognize songs from the beloved Little House on the Prairie books. The duo has a calendar of seven performances beginning on July 4:
MEDIA RELEASE__Sea captain, surveyor and Ohio's last frontiersman James (NMN) Riley will show up on Saturday, July 4 for Bluffton’s America 250 events. Captain Riley will set his time machine coordinates to arrive at the Presbyterian Church gazebo from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. He will discuss little-known facts about his life as a sea captain and a surveyor, and how Riley Creek was named.
MEDIA RELEASE__A small town hoopla is one way to describe the exuberant preparations being made in Bluffton to celebrate the Fourth of July on America’s 250th year.
MEDIA RELEASE__Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Well, there weren’t any lions or tigers but there probably were bears (and definitely wolves) when the Swiss settlers began to arrive in the Bluffton/Pandora area.
Join us on Saturday, July 11, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at the Schumacher Homestead and Swiss Heritage Center, 8350 Bixel Road, for a look at the critters that our Swiss ancestors had to deal with when they began to build “The Settlement.”
Swiss Community Historical Society enters a new era with museum and staffing
By Paula Pyzik Scott
The June 28 celebration of Swiss Day by members of the Swiss Community Historical Society of Bluffton and Pandora was extra sweet. We’re not talking about going back for seconds at the dessert table: it’s because the potluck meal and business meeting were held at the society’s Swiss Heritage Center for the first time.
More than cars were on display on Friday, June 19, at Bluffton’s 58th Annual Festival of Wheels, put on by the Bluffton Lions Club.
Featured this year was a jail cell where John Dillinger was held after robbing Bluffton's Citizens National Bank in 1933. Right beside this was the 2026 best of show winner, Larry Reichenbach's 1956 Chevy Corvette. Reichenbach was among over 250 vintage car, truck, motorcycle and tractor enthusiasts displaying their prized possessions.
