Tulip City Dispatch

Every year, the band Mustard Plug puts on a post-Christmas holiday show in their hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This was the first year I'd attended, and was happy to see an entire show dedicated to the local music scene – all 3 opening bands were from the same city! Ugly Flannel, 2019, photo taken by author First up was Ugly Flannel. Echoes of Switchfoot and Good Charlotte mixed with the thematic elements of The Used, in a tarantella of mid-00's indie music that brought me straight back to high school and early college. There's a certain somethin' somethin' about that specific style of music – certainly not pop-punk, a little later than the emo craze of Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy, but slightly earlier than when Mumford & Son and Wilco dominated the iPods of guys wearing ironic facial hair and chunky glasses. I must say, I was firmly entranced by the band Ugly Flannel, and their ability to defy genre. Ugly Flannel were a fantastic opener ...

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 ...

Pic of the Lowing Cemetery, taken in November 2019 by the author The Lowing Cemetery is located at 28 th Ave and Bauer. According to the book Bend In The River , "The saga of the cemetery came about some time later when Stephan's brother, Holden [Lowing], wished to extend a logging road, which led north from Hudsonville, across his land. Holden asked permission of Stephan to have the road cross his property, making a straight access north from Hudsonville to the Ohio Mill's Dock on the Grand River. The plan was a feasible one, but Stephan refused to give his consent, angering Holden. Years passed, and then Stephan proposed to build a road going through to the river. He started proper procedure for approval of its construction. However, Holden, who was then supervisor of Georgetown Township, hadn't forgotten the earlier incident. Knowing that a road cannot disturb a cemetery, he turned the southern most part of his land into a pauper's field, burying o...

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...

I've got one official article posted, one queued up, and one that I'm putting together the final touches on.  I've got a flurry of article ideas in my head, and I hope I can solidify some direction or aim for the overall blog that I'm trying to run: -Please, please reach out to me for any questions, comments, or concerns!  I'm still learning this whole blogging thing!  If you have anything to add, get ahold of me either here, via email, or on other social medias.  I'm TulipCityDispatch@gmail.com, @TulipCityDispatch on Insta, and @TulipDispatch on Twitter.  I strive for academic standards, and as much transparency as I can offer.  It is not my intent to misrepresent any of the people, places, or things that I write about - however, I'm just one guy doing this in my spare time, and I'll probably miss something. -I struggled with naming this blog.  As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I want to showcase the little oddities around Holland and the g...

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...