In 1847, Albertus Van Raalte led a group of Dutch Calvinist settlers to the banks of a river in West Michigan and built a church. That church — Pillar Church, now on the National Register of Historic Places — still holds services. The fire of 1871 took nearly all of downtown Holland, but the community rebuilt, and what endured became the seed of a longer identity. A working Dutch windmill, De Zwaan, was purchased from a retired miller in the Dutch province of North Brabant in 1964, shipped to Michigan, and still grinds flour on Windmill Island. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was there for the 1965 opening; his ten guilder bill is still on display. The Holland Museum carries the full arc — the 1847 arrival, the fire, the Tulip Time Festival that grew from those roots. Some cities perform their heritage. Holland, Michigan, still operates it.
