De Immigrant, and Windmill Cultural Center
For years my husband Keith and I tried to visit De Immigrant Windmill . Located in Fulton, Illinois along the Mississippi River, we would stop and walk around the windmill. We gazed longingly at the Windmill Cultural Center. Only to find that everything was closed.
This past weekend though, we took a trip with our friends Janna and Denny Seiz. We toured both the windmill, and the cultural center as well. It was worth the wait!
It was a natural disaster, fetter the flood of 1965, that Fulton built a Dutch-style levee–or flood control dike in the 1980s. With their Dutch history in mind, Fulton residents decided to build a Dutch windmill. It would be placed on top of the dike would represent their cultural history
Fulton’s Dutch Heritage
The first Dutch arrival came in 1856. Then the Dutch arrived from Chicago and Michigan. Eventually arrivals came directly from the Netherlands.
The name of the windmill has Dutch roots! The book, The Building of De Immigrant, states how the windmill got its name. “Rachael Ottens, 5th grade Fulton student, submitted the winning name, De Immigrant.”
De Immigrant Construction and Completion
The Dutch windmill was built on the dike. This is located at 10th and First streets. The mill was dedicated in May of 2000. Friends of the Windmill raised around $90,000 to purchase the needed blue basalt millstones. The first grain was ground in 2001.
De Immigrant is an eight-sided windmill. It cost $1 million to build with grant money from the State of Illinois to help. The windmill was built in the Netherlands for Fulton. On the trip to Fulton, the windmill traveled by ship, rail and truck. After arriving, it was put together by millwrights and Dutch masons.
De Immigrant Details
The windmill is stunning. Builders used 150-year-old bricks around the 35’ tall base. The windmill itself is over 90 feet tall. As the wind moves the sails, the gears move. Grinding stones grind wheat, rye, buckwheat and corn. One bushel of grain is ground every ten minutes if the wind is right. The flour is sold in the cultural center.
Pre Covid, 10,000 visitors came each year. Today both the windmill and cultural center are open during weekend hours May -October.
The Windmill Cultural Center
Across the street from De Immigrant is The Windmill Cultural Center and gift shop. They offer a wonderful array of windmill models. Windmill sizes range from ten inches to six feet in height. Henk Heileman and his wife, June traveled extensively photographing windmills.
When they returned home, they would build the models. Henk Heileman used blueprints from the real mills and his wife June did much of the painting and fine details. Eventually the couple retired in Demotte, Indiana. After retirement, they began looking for a home for their windmills and chose Fulton.
Models include a Dutch-style mill from Long Island New York. There is a mill from Iran and one from Russia. There are twenty-five scale model windmills (including 20 European ones). The European countries represented include Belgium, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
More!
Check out the Heritage Canyon while in town as well as a stop at Krumpets for great food. If you enjoy windmills, check out the one in Golden, Illinois, and Pella and Elkhorn Iowa! Share windmill stops that you have been to, I’d love to hear!
