Why Holland is so Dutch — tulips, a windmill, and an 1847 beginning

Holland really is Dutch, and it has been from the start. The city was founded in 1847 by Dutch immigrants — followers of a Calvinist minister, Reverend Albertus Van Raalte, who left the Netherlands seeking religious freedom and settled along Lake Macatawa, an arm of Lake Michigan. They named their new town “Holland,” after the homeland they’d left behind. The Dutch Reformed tradition the settlers brought still runs deep here, and Van Raalte went on to found Hope College. You’ll see the heritage everywhere — in the street names, the architecture, and the city’s whole sense of itself.

That identity comes alive each spring at Tulip Time, a festival running since 1929 that fills the town with millions of blooming tulips, wooden-shoe (Klompen) dancers, and parades. It’s one of the largest flower festivals in the country, and it’s why Holland is nicknamed “Tulip City.” The other must-see is Windmill Island Gardens, a 36-acre city park built around De Zwaan (“The Swan”) — a genuine Dutch windmill built in the Netherlands back in 1761 and shipped to Holland in 1964. It was the last windmill the Dutch government ever allowed to leave the country, it’s the only authentic working Dutch windmill in the United States, and it still grinds grain into flour you can buy on site.

To see it for yourself: Tulip Time runs in early May each year (tuliptime.com). Windmill Island Gardens is at 1 Lincoln Avenue, Holland, open seasonally from about mid-April through October, and its website is windmillisland.com.