Right up there with tulips and windmills, Big Red has become a symbol of Holland. It’s even depicted on the logo of the Visitors Bureau and touted as a must-see attraction. The only hiccup is that you can’t actually go there. Sure, you can admire the lighthouse from afar and many do. Pure Michigan even has dubbed it the “Michigan’s most photographed lighthouse.”

So, what keeps this beacon out of reach? The main reason is that it's surrounded by private property and thus inaccessible to the general public wanting to reach the lighthouse on foot.

But since when has an obstacle stood in the way of Hollanders intent on making something happen, especially when it involves the lighthouse and channel?

Way back in 1849, when Holland’s founder Albertus Van Raalte recognized Lake Michigan as a key to growth and development for the early settlement, he asked Congress for assistance in building a canal between Lake Michigan and Black Lake (what is now known as Lake Macatawa). At the time, the two lakes were connected by nothing more than a shallow, winding stream.

When the government failed to respond, what did the Hollanders do? They banded together and dug the canal themselves.

In 1866, once the work was done of digging the channel was done, the government took over—developing the harbor and, a few years later, building the first beacon. When the government eventually added a tower with an electric horn and light, the structure became an official lighthouse. That was in 1936.

It wouldn’t be for another twenty years that the manilla-colored structure was painted red to comply with regulations, earning its current moniker.

All was fine and dandy until 1970, when the Coast Guard announced plans to abandon what by then had become imprinted into the beauty of Holland’s shoreline, Big Red.

Once again, Hollanders came together, this time writing letters to the Coast Guard to save their landmark from demolition. Because of those letters, the Coast Guard changed course and agreed to continue maintaining the structure. In 1974, for added assurance, the citizens formed the Holland Harbor Lighthouse Historical Commission (HHLHC) for the specific purpose of preserving and restoring the lighthouse. HHLHC would officially assume ownership of Big Red 33 years later.

Throughout this time, the land adjacent to Big Red—where lighthouse visitors gained access—held hotels. The last hotel to be located there was Point West Inn and Conference Center which was bought in the mid 1990s. After the sale, for the first time in over a hundred years, the land was not purposed with a hotel. Instead, it became a personal residence with a guard shack to keep people from trespassing to go to the lighthouse.

In response to the access being eliminated, the HHLHC met with the new owner and came up with an agreement in which visitors were allowed a one-hour visit on specific days of the week with a few accompanying parking spots.

When the owner of the property passed away ten years later, the family graciously kept the arrangement with HHLHC until 2020. Ever since, the only access has been given to the HHLHC for lighthouse maintenance and for small lighthouse events pre-approved by the family.

According to locals, there still are three ways to visit the lighthouse. The first is to attend an HHLHC event. The second is to “anchor offshore behind the south breakwater and wade to the shore directly onto lighthouse property.” And the third is to “park at Laketown Beach and walk north for four miles along privately-owned beaches.” Be sure to never walk onto the high-water mark as dictated by Michigan Court decision.

If you’re satisfied with that, fine. But if you’re not…

Would such a setback as lack of access have stopped the Hollanders of the past? If it had, the lighthouse wouldn’t still be standing, and the canal might never have been dug. It seems there’s not much that can be done about private landownership. And forcing passage onto someone’s land doesn’t seem like the answer or the neighborly thing to do.

Perhaps it’s time for a new petition.

Why not band together and petition to move the lighthouse? One of the best ways to view the lighthouse is from across the channel at Holland State Park. Holland State Park is public. According to Lighthouse Friends, the structure already has been moved once. In 1880, it was moved “260 feet lakeward.”  What if this time it’s moved across the channel, to the North Pier?

How about it Hollanders? Surely moving the structure is easier than digging an entire canal as your predecessors did. Surely there are more of you to shoulder the financial burden than they had. And surely, with the reach of social media, it’s easier to organize support and deploy a plan with all those who today don’t have access.

Or come up with something else: a ferry service, a zipline across the channel…

It could be that you’re satisfied with the current offerings of the incredibly thorough and well-researched, but hands-off history shared on HHLHC’s Big Red website and by the Holland Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Pump House Museum and Learning Center of Holland, and Holland Museum. And the virtual tour of Big Red led by the president of HHLHC, John Gronberg, is almost like being there.

And maybe you’re OK with viewing the lighthouse from afar, which can be done from Holland State Park, Mount Pisgah, and the Holland Princess Paddlewheel Cruise.

But for those of you who think it’s only right to have an all-access pass to the landmarks of your own history…

What are you waiting for?

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