De Zwaan is an authentic
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
windmillA windmill is a machine which translates linear motion of wind to rotational motion by means of adjustable vanes called sails. The main use is for a grinding mill powered by the wind, reducing a solid or coarse substance into pulp or minute grains by crushing, grinding, or pressing...
in the city of
Holland, MichiganHolland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River . The city spans the Ottawa/Allegan county line, with in Ottawa and the remaining in Allegan...
, USA. The windmill's name is Dutch for
The Swan or
Graceful Bird. It is the only authentic, working Dutch windmill in the United States. De Zwaan is located in
Windmill IslandWindmill Island is a municipal park located in the city of Holland, Michigan. It is home to the 245-year-old windmill De Zwaan, the only authentic, working Dutch windmill in the United States.-History:...
municipal park.
De Zwaan was first was erected in
KrommenieKrommenie is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 15 km northeast of Haarlem.Krommenie was a separate municipality until 1974, when the new municipality of Zaanstad was created....
, near
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
, Noord Holland in 1761. In 1889, it was moved to Vinkel in the province of Noord Brabant and reconstructed there.
When Holland, Michigan residents Willard Wichers and Carter Brown were looking for a way to pay homage to the city's Dutch heritage, they began a project to bring a Dutch windmill to the United States.
De Zwaan is an authentic
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
windmillA windmill is a machine which translates linear motion of wind to rotational motion by means of adjustable vanes called sails. The main use is for a grinding mill powered by the wind, reducing a solid or coarse substance into pulp or minute grains by crushing, grinding, or pressing...
in the city of
Holland, MichiganHolland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River . The city spans the Ottawa/Allegan county line, with in Ottawa and the remaining in Allegan...
, USA. The windmill's name is Dutch for
The Swan or
Graceful Bird. It is the only authentic, working Dutch windmill in the United States. De Zwaan is located in
Windmill IslandWindmill Island is a municipal park located in the city of Holland, Michigan. It is home to the 245-year-old windmill De Zwaan, the only authentic, working Dutch windmill in the United States.-History:...
municipal park.
History
De Zwaan was first was erected in
KrommenieKrommenie is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 15 km northeast of Haarlem.Krommenie was a separate municipality until 1974, when the new municipality of Zaanstad was created....
, near
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
, Noord Holland in 1761. In 1889, it was moved to Vinkel in the province of Noord Brabant and reconstructed there.
When Holland, Michigan residents Willard Wichers and Carter Brown were looking for a way to pay homage to the city's Dutch heritage, they began a project to bring a Dutch windmill to the United States. However, many of these monumental structures had suffered serious damage in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. As a result, the Dutch government had placed a ban on the sale of windmills outside the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
. Wichers and his group were able to gain an exemption by selecting a heavily damaged mill known as De Zwaan. De Zwaan was at the center of a controversy, with three local agencies unable to determine the future of the damaged windmill. The Dutch government decided to sell it to Wichers for $2800, making De Zwaan the last windmill to leave the Netherlands.
In October, 1964, De Zwaan arrived aboard the
Prins Willem van Oranje. It was unloaded at the
MuskegonMuskegon is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 40,105. The city is the county seat of Muskegon County...
harbor and transported by truck to
Windmill IslandWindmill Island is a municipal park located in the city of Holland, Michigan. It is home to the 245-year-old windmill De Zwaan, the only authentic, working Dutch windmill in the United States.-History:...
in Holland. It took approximately 6 months to reconstruct the mill.
In April 1965, the windmill was formally dedicated on Windmill Island, a site reclaimed from a
swampA swamp is a wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a substantial number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types...
on the eastern end of
Lake MacatawaLake Macatawa is a lake in Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The lake is about long with a maximum width of and a surface area of 1,700 acres The average depth of the lake is variable but generally less than , excluding a navigation channel of fixed depth that crosses the lake to...
. It is open from late April through early October.
When winds are favorable (15 to 20 miles per hour from the west), De Zwaan's diameter blades are usually in motion.
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