Blue Creek, one of the two Mennonite settlements in the Orange Walk District, is 30 miles from Orange Walk Town. On approaching Blue Creek the sugar cane fields are replaced with sorghum and corn fields, as the Mennonites have proven to be very productive farmers.

The Mennonites residing in Blue Creek, as opposed to those in Shipyard, are the community that have chosen to use modern equipment. They have dammed the Rio Bravo and cut the channel to provide water for a small hydroelectric plant they built. Knowing that they were without the hydraulic equipment to control the flow of water, the Mennonites purchased a wreck from a Constellation cargo plane that had crashed at the International airport. They used the hydraulic gear from the transport to control the flow of water and the fuselage for a barn. Also located in the village are operations for furniture making.

Half of the Mennonite community in Blue Creek belongs to the Evangelical Mennonite Mission Church and the rest of the community has joined the Kleine Gemeinde. The Mennonites are known as "the unobtrusive ones" or in Plattdeutsch, the low German dialect that they speak- die Stillen im Lande. They operate their own schools, churches and banks and are exempt from military services. The Mennonites are easily detected by their way of dress - the men with their denim overalls and straw hats and the women in print dresses and wide brimmed bonnets.

The Mennonites roots can be traced back to the Swiss Alps in the 16th century, as members of one of the earliest Protestant sects. Their sect was founded by a Dutch priest in 1531, leading a group of Anabaptists forming their own church. The Mennonites, as they still do now, refused to become involved in government and the military, refused to take oaths and stressed adult baptism. Because of being constantly persecuted for their beliefs, the Mennonites formed tight-knit communities in Poland, Netherlands, United States and southern Russia.

But by the 1870's, thousands of Mennonites left for Manitoba and Pennsylvania after a threat from Russia. In Canada, the government wanted the Mennonite's children to go to public schools and learn English, history and geography. This was against their beliefs, so by 1920 many of the Mennonites left Canada for Mexico and South America. By the late 1950's the Mennonites were ready to move on in search of more farmland. This time their destination was Belize, which at that time was known as British Honduras.

Mennonites began arriving in Belize in 1958, with about 350 families being the first to arrive. They settled on uninhabited land in the Orange Walk, Corozal and Cayo Districts and have acquired up to 150,000 acres.They have become very productive farmers.

They started the first chicken hatchery in Spanish Lookout. As experienced chicken farmers, they lowered the price of eggs dramatically. The Mennonite farms produce much of the fruits, vegetables, milk and cheese in the country and they are well known for their furniture. If you are in Belize City on any Friday, check out the furniture for sale along Front Street.