Windmill Island, Holland, MI

We saved the Island for our last day in Holland, and we were blessed with perfect weather to enjoy one of the top treats of our Michigan adventure. The Island is really a city park that surrounds an authentic Dutch windmill brought to Holland in 1964 from the Netherlands. This grain mill is over 240 years old. It was disassembled and shipped to the United States for re-assembly in Holland. It is named De Zwaan ("The Swan"), and it was the last windmill to leave the Netherlands.

The park contains more than the windmill: an operating Dutch Street Organ; an operating Dutch Carousel; a reconstructed 14th Century Posthouse; flowers everywhere; and Little Netherlands, a 50-foot-long model Dutch village. We began our tour with a slide show and a demonstration of the Street Organ.

The organ was a gift to the city of Holland to express the appreciation of the Dutch for the aid given to their country by the United States during World War 2. The organ is delightful to listen to, and it is a marvelously engineered device.

The park is one huge garden of flowers. We were told that in the next few weeks all the beautiful flowers throughout the park will be pulled up and replaced by thousands of tulip bulbs from the Netherlands that will emerge next spring.

The windmill, purchased by the city, is the centerpiece of the park. It consists of six floors. The miller drives his cart of wheat into the mill through a large door on the first floor and, after unloading the wheat, out a similar door on the opposite side. The second floor is the packaging floor where the ground flour is packaged into 2-pound bags for sale. Ground flour is stored in a bin on the third floor prior to being sent by chute to the second floor for packaging. The fourth floor is the milling floor. Eighty percent of the mill on this floor is the original 240 year old mill wood. The grinding floor is the fifth floor where three wooden gears mesh with two other gears on the sixth floor to turn the top stone against the stationary bottom stone.

The windmill blades are 80 feet long, six feet wide and weight three tons. Boards and sail can be added or removed depending on wind conditions. The Capstand Wheel turns the top cap of the mill to aim the blades directly into the wind. The engineering of the windmill is fascinating, and the craftsmanship is incredible. All metal used in construction was fashioned by a blacksmith. Timbers were hewed using ancient tools. Wooden gears are meticulously shaped and unbelievably durable. The entire structure is amazing.

We left the park feeling that we had been treated to a wonderful experience. We returned to the campground for about an hour before leaving for dinner at the Boatwerks Restaurant. We had an excellent farewell dinner for our group sitting on the deck next to the water. Very nice.

After dinner we made our way to Eighth Street which is the main shopping street in Holland. Each Thursday evening the city promotes sidewalk entertainment along the street. The best act we saw was the "Flying Angels", a group of four women. The show began with stationary acrobatics, then fire-eating, and concluded with acrobatics on the 'silks' high above the concrete and brick plaza on which the group performed. It was fun and entertaining.

On our way to the ice cream parlor we stopped to see a 1910 Packard automobile that had been impeccably restored. What a wonderful experience it was to see such a beauty. Ice cream is a great way to end a great day. We returned to the campground to close out the day. Tomorrow we leave the group and drive to St Clair, MI.