Windmill De Zwaan (The Swan)

The history of windmill “De Zwaan” in Vinkel goes back to 1884. In that year miller P. van Schaijk built an octagonal belt mill in the village. For the construction of the mill, as was quite common at the time, parts of a mill that had become obsolete elsewhere were used.
When a church was built around 1900 a stone's throw from the mill, Miller Van Schaijk was not happy with that, to say the least. The church caused considerable wind obstruction of the mill, which did not benefit production. The miller was so angry about the construction that he decided not to attend church for 6 weeks. When that proved to be no solution, it was finally decided in 1902 to move the mill to another location in the village, east of the location where the mill originally stood.
In WWII the mill was hit by a bombshell, wind drainage was no longer possible.
De Zwaan was eventually demolished in 1964, and all parts that were still usable were sent to the United States by ship, all 700 exactly numbered. The mill appears to have been sold to an American with Dutch roots.
Across the ocean, the Swan is assembled with meticulous precision on Windmill Island in Holland, Michigan.
All that remained in Vinkel were the field walls on which the octagon stood. On these walls a new exact copy of the mill De Zwaan was built, all by volunteers, which opening was celebrated mid 2020
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