History
Some Mennonites from Pilgrimage Valley wanted to relocate due to disagreements of hiring tractors for plowing and the nearness of San Ignacio and Santa Elena towns. So in 1968 John Shirk and Titus Martin joined up with Heinrich Friesen from Spanish Lookout to search for new land. After a year the three men purchased an 850 acre lot which they named Upper Barton Creek after the stream that runs through the property.Between 1983 and 1985, families from the neighboring community of Lower Barton Creek joined Upper Barton Creek. Originally these families came from Shipyard.
In 1984 they started to realize that they had similar beliefs to the Hoover Mennonites from Scottsville, Kentucky. As it became more apparent the two groups made a plan to bring their churches under one affiliation. Elders from Upper Barton Creek traveled to Kentucky to visit and the elders from Kentucky did likewise. In this way in 1980 a completely new denomination was born in Belize.
With so many youths coming of age and getting married and more and more Mennonites settling in Upper Barton Creek from Lower Barton Creek and other colonies they started to run out of land. So in 1996 they created a new settlement to the south of Belmopan which they named Springfield.
Upper Barton Creek has lost much of it's remoteness due to a nearby tourist attraction, Barton Creek Cave, and the Chiquibul Road being paved in 2021.
As of 2017 Upper Barton Creek had about 27 families.
Sources
The Hoover Mennonites in Belize: A History of Expansion in the Shadow of Separation.