100 Things To Do In Holland Before You Die: #41 - Walk Through A Dune At Tunnel Park

Honestly, this entry could be a series. I have at least a full page of notes in my old blog notebook about Tunnel Park. As I started this blog back in 2019, this particular book kept on coming up in my early research. The area north of Holland proper was incredibly touristy in the early 20th century, and featured many lakeside resorts and attractions - not the least of which was Tunnel Park (subject of this entry).

Located on 22 acres north of Holland, the park's namesake tunnel actually goes through the dune. There are stairs and everything, but - why a tunnel? And, what's this got to do with The Farm That Was A Zoo?

See, the land that Tunnel Park sits on was donated by Chicago industrialist, George Getz, who owned the aforementioned Farm That Was A Zoo, to Ottawa County in the 1920s, in an effort to get beachgoers away from his property - he set Tunnel Park up as strictly beach access. The tunnel? There's an urban legend that it was set up to get elephants through the dunes, but I've found no confirmation of that at all. It was installed in 1929, and remains there to this day (Swierenga, pp. 1551, 1788).

If you're so inclined (ha, get it?) it's not that much more effort to climb the rest of the dune. I've done sunset yoga with Funky Buddha on the dune overlooking Lake Michigan, and I've also done wintertime hikes in the snow and wind over the dunes.

Holland's Big Red lighthouse as viewed from Tunnel Park

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