Shipyard, Belize

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Shipyard
Shipyard is located in Belize
Shipyard
Shipyard
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Country  Belize
District Orange Walk District
Population (2014)
 • Total 3,497
Time zone Central (UTC-6)
Climate Am

Shipyard, also called Shipyard Colony, is a Mennonite settlement that is also an administrative village in the Orange Walk District of Belize.

Shipyard was founded in 1958 by Old Colony Mennonites from Chihuahua and Durango states in Mexico.[1] It consists of more than 20 camps (German: "Dörfer"), which have German names like "Blumenort" or "Hochfeld", but outside the Mennonite community they are referred to only by numbers, e. g. "Camp 5" instead of "Reinfeld".

Most of the population of Shipyard are Plautdietsch speaking ethnic Mennonites, living in a very integrated community where most of them work as carpenters, farmers and mechanics. Most Mennonites of Shipyard are quite traditional in lifestyle, still using horse and buggy for transportation and tractors with steel wheels for fieldwork. Compared with other Mennontes in Belize, Shipyard is more conservative than Spanish Lookout and Blue Creek, but more modern concerning the use of technology then Upper Barton Creek, Springfield and daughter colonies.

Around 1960 the total population of Shipyard was 728. In 1987 it had grown to 1,966.[2] In the 2014 census it had a total population of 3,497 people. It is thus the largest Mennonite settlement in Belize.

File:Ploughing at Shipyard Belize.jpg
Ploughing fields with steel wheels in Shipyard

See also

Mennonites in Belize

Web links

Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online: Shipyard Colony (Belize)

References

  1. Friesen, David K. and John B. Loewen. "Shipyard Colony (Belize)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1989. Web. 23 Feb 2015. [1]
  2. Friesen, David K. and John B. Loewen. "Shipyard Colony (Belize)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1989. Web. 23 Feb 2015. [2]