All About Holland 2023

BIG RED LIGHTHOUSE

Gene Paskiewicz

To enjoy the full Big Red experience , begin at Mt. Pisgah, where a dune staircase carries you 157 feet above sea level to a breathtaking panorama of the shoreline and its colorful guard. Explore a sand dune forest and then retrace your steps toward the Black Lake Boardwalk. A favorite stroll for visitors and locals alike, this path skirts Lake Macatawa and the channel, ending at Holland State Park’s north pier – the best place to view Big Red. (Prefer to stay in the comfort of your car? You can also drive directly to the Holland State Park and still thoroughly delight in the view.) Access to the lighthouse is limited to these stunning vistas across the channel. Enjoy your journey to sugar sands, where you can watch fishermen cruise past our treasured icon into the beauty of Lake Michigan.

Don’t miss Michigan’s most photographed lighthouse , Holland’s beloved “Big Red.” The three-story square tower building stands sentinel over the channel connecting Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan. Our iconic lighthouse has a long and rich history dating back to the first wooden beacon light built on the site in 1870. The structure made many evolutions: to a steel tower, to a fog signal building, to its final form as the electric lighthouse we know and love. The narrow channel that Big Red illuminates today would never have been a reality without the determination of Dutch settlers to create an agricultural port in Lake Macatawa. Unable to fund removal of silt and sandbars blocking access, the settlers took up their own picks and shovels and dug a channel to Lake Michigan themselves.

HOLLAND STATE PARK 2215 Ottawa Beach Rd; 49423

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