My Journey Thus Far

I was recently laid off from work, so I thought I'd start a blog to kill some time. I wanted to highlight some of the oddities in Holland, Michigan. Holland's a lakeside tourist town, so most of the more unusual aspects of town are already well-documented; the last remaining, fully functional, wooden windmill in the Western hemisphere, and the surrounding Dutch village, for example. Wooden shoe factories and tulip farms; hell, even our annual Tulip Time festival make Holland unique, but I was looking for deep cuts, hidden spots, locals-only venues, and other truly weird stuff. What I found was so much more than that.

I started my search at the library, picking up and paging through assorted books in the Local History section. I was expecting to find a collection of 10-foot tall bronze tulips in a billionaire's backyard, evidence that AC Van Raalte was cremated and his ashes mixed in the mortar at Pillar Church, or maybe that Mad Hatter from New Holland Brewing is the same beer brought over by Dutch immigrants in the 1850's. Sadly, none of that has come to fruition (yet).

I moved onto the local museum, the archives at Hope College, and a few online sources, including a New Deal-era book on the State of Michigan, Ottawa County property records, and a geocaching site to find out more about my first few entries: Ghost towns and abandoned train lines, Indian villages that have been whitewashed out of history books, spite cemeteries, and (as cliche as it sounds) buried treasure.

I've got a few odds and ends to tie up, then my hope is to get some drafts written and begin a regular posting schedule. I'm on Twitter @TulipDispatch and available at tulipcitydispatch@gmail.com. We'll see where this rabbit hole goes!

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Merry Christmas from Tulip City!

I don't have a full article this week, but here's a little bit of trivia for you: While Holland is a predominantly Christian Reformed city, it was the early Methodists that sprung the Christmas spirit. While an 1867 Sunday School Christmas Program drew nearly 150 youngsters to Hope Church, it was several generations before the Reformed church allowed even Christmas trees into their sanctuaries, as Christmas trees were seen as Pagan symbols. Early Methodists adopted the 19th Century American spirit, and welcomed things like Christmas trees and even Santa Claus into their sanctuaries. I tried to determine exactly how long "several generations" were using Dr. Swierenga's book (and the sources he cites), but could not ascertain the exact time. It's almost certainly somewhere in the vicinity of 50 years (before the Christian Reformed Churches allowed 'pagan' Christmas symbols), which would put their allowing of such things into the early 20th century, but ...

The Cedar Swamp Village

Holland has only been a settled city for a little over 170 years. But, it's got a dense, unique history. I took an interest in local history during my college years at Northern Michigan University, and was able to take that interest back home after graduation. Recently, I began researching for this blog, and hanging out at the library, poring through the Local History section. I found an old, forboding looking book, entitled Memorials Of The Grand River Valley, flipped open to a seemingly random page, and read the passage "The Indian village, near the southeastern limits of the city,w as also a prominent landing-place. The log-houses, built by the Indians, were of great service to the newly arrived immigrants; and, as it appears, there never has been any trouble between the Red man and the Dutchman." This piqued my interest, as I live near the southeastern limits of Holland. Was there an Indian village in my own neighborhood that history forgot? Memorials ad...

The Ghost Town in Hudsonville

When the term "ghost town" is brought up, one doesn't usually think of modern subdivisions and upper-middle class suburbs. The classic "ghost town" is usually applied to a town that was abandoned when a major industry dries up, leaving crumbling shells of buildings, maybe some artifacts, and nothing but memories. You know the drill, overgrown storefronts, smashed windows, tumbleweeds, maybe a hobo or two. Briefly, there was an interurban rail system all around Western Michigan in the late 19 th and early 20 th century. I won't go into details, as the whole system is well-documented elsewhere, but the electric train systems allowed for the transportation of people all around the major metropolitan areas in West Michigan...Grand Rapids was a major hub, and they had lines going to Grandville, Jenison, and Hudsonville along Chicago Drive; south to Kalamazoo; and as it pertains to this story, to Holland and Saugatuck. The branch between Grand Rapids an...

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