The Roloff family’s hometown was calm and sleepy before reality TV camera crews moved in, but now a lot of fans are dropping in to visit Helvetia, Oregon.
The little town in the Pacific Northwest holds a community of 54,000 — not counting the tourists stopping by these days. Matt and Amy Roloff settled down in Helvetia in 1990, when Matt took a job at a company called Sequent Systems in Beaverton, Oregon. It’s not far from the Columbia River, and it is situated right in between Tillamook State Forest and Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
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Helvetia is located in the northwestern part of Oregon, less than 20 miles from the city of Portland.
The Roloff family property was about 34 acres to start with, though these days Roloff Farms totals 110 acres, according to a report by InTouch Weekly. The sprawling homestead is the main stop for most visitors in Helvetia, who come to see first hand the amusement park based on the “utopian playland” Matt and Amy once built for their kids, Zach, Jeremy, Molly and Jacob. Roloff Farms also contains a pumpkin patch and a few other niceties, and it draws about 30,000 visitors each year.
“Amy would have been comfortable with a beautiful home they had found in the city,” reads the farm’s official website, “but Matt was drawn to the rural life. ‘He had a dream’ — a big vision of what this property could be, their ideal home.”
“While Amy managed their growing family, Matt set out to make their dream come true. He envisioned a working farm, but also a magical place for his children. During the early years he built a Tom-Sawyer-like adventure land with a huge pirate ship, a three-story tree fort and a marvelous Western Town (complete with underground tunnels)! Later he added a soccer field, in ground pool, and more imaginative play structures. He continues adding each and every year,” the site added.
Many fans of Little People, Big World are taking the chance to visit the farm while they still can, as the latest promo for the show suggests that the family might be selling it off sometime soon.
“We’ve been talking a lot about the farm,” Matt said in the latest teaser. “Trying to figure out how to keep it or not keep it.”
While the attraction is popular and most likely lucrative, it seems to be a point of contention for the now-divorced couple. The same TV spot for their reality show features Matt and Amy arguing over the Matt’s new girlfriend, Caryn.
The Roloff parents are in an evolutionary state, both moving on to new relationships and new ventures, and many speculate that the farm might be an unwanted tie to their past. With all of their children grown up and moved out, Roloff Farms might be on its way out too.
“It’s always going to be awkward,” Matt said in the video. “I just want my own path away from the farm, away from Amy.”
