De Zwaan Windmill
De Zwaan is an authentic Dutch windmill in the city of Holland, Michigan. The windmill's name is Dutch for The Swan or Graceful Bird. It is the only authentic, working Dutch windmill in the United States.
The project began in late 1961 with the suggestion from Carter Brown to Willard Wichers (Midwest Director of the Netherlands Information Service) to have an authentic Dutch windmill in Holland, Michigan as a symbol of the Dutch heritage that founded the town. However, many of these monumental structures had suffered serious damage in World War II. As a result, the Dutch government had placed a ban on the sale of windmills outside the Netherlands. Wichers and his group were able to gain an exemption by selecting a heavily damaged mill known as De Zwaan, located in the small town of Vinkel in the province of North Brabant. It then became the last windmill to leave the Netherlands.
In October, 1964, De Zwaan arrived aboard the Prins Willem van Oranje. It was unloaded at the Muskegon harbor and transported by truck to Holland. The mill was to be placed on a 36 acre site reclaimed from a swamp on the eastern end of Lake Macatawa. The setting would look much like the lowlands of the Netherlands. It took approximately 6 months for a Dutch millwright and a crew of local carpenters to reconstruct the 125-foot mill. It was dedicated by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in April 1965, and opened to the public the following month in May, in time for the Tulip Time Festival, for which Holland is well known.
The De Zwaan mill and the park in which it sits, Windmill Island Gardens, is open from late April through early October, and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a season of golden anniversary events. The Run of the Mill will be held on the Golden Anniversary Opening on April 18, 2015.
~De Zwaan history courtesy of miller Alisa Crawford
The project began in late 1961 with the suggestion from Carter Brown to Willard Wichers (Midwest Director of the Netherlands Information Service) to have an authentic Dutch windmill in Holland, Michigan as a symbol of the Dutch heritage that founded the town. However, many of these monumental structures had suffered serious damage in World War II. As a result, the Dutch government had placed a ban on the sale of windmills outside the Netherlands. Wichers and his group were able to gain an exemption by selecting a heavily damaged mill known as De Zwaan, located in the small town of Vinkel in the province of North Brabant. It then became the last windmill to leave the Netherlands.
In October, 1964, De Zwaan arrived aboard the Prins Willem van Oranje. It was unloaded at the Muskegon harbor and transported by truck to Holland. The mill was to be placed on a 36 acre site reclaimed from a swamp on the eastern end of Lake Macatawa. The setting would look much like the lowlands of the Netherlands. It took approximately 6 months for a Dutch millwright and a crew of local carpenters to reconstruct the 125-foot mill. It was dedicated by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in April 1965, and opened to the public the following month in May, in time for the Tulip Time Festival, for which Holland is well known.
The De Zwaan mill and the park in which it sits, Windmill Island Gardens, is open from late April through early October, and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a season of golden anniversary events. The Run of the Mill will be held on the Golden Anniversary Opening on April 18, 2015.
~De Zwaan history courtesy of miller Alisa Crawford