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Home / Washington Business - January/February 2005 / Welkom bij Lynden: It's Time for a Taste of Dutch Hospitality |
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Welkom bij Lynden: It's Time for a Taste of Dutch Hospitality |
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Written On: January/February 2005 |
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Written By: by Shawn Sullivan |
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Pioneers settled Lynden in 1871, and incorporated their land into a city two years after Washington became a state in 1889. The majority of the new population consisted of Dutch immigrants, who settled near the Nooksack River because it compared favorably to their native farmlands.
What started out as a small farming community grew extensively over the last 100 years and is now one of the largest agricultural producers in the country.
Lynden’s main agricultural producers are raspberry and dairy farmers. It is the largest producer of raspberries (per capita) in the world. Local farmers produced more than 58.2 million pounds of raspberries in 2002, which accounts for two-thirds of the supply in the United States. Lynden also provides local businesses and suppliers with 150 million gallons of milk every year.
Lynden has always been agriculturally prosperous, but the nearby Bellis Fair Mall opened in 1987 and threatened to divert the flow of tourists. Lynden needed a way to keep its smaller department stores and clothing shops open, and it needed one quickly.
Shortly after the mall opened, Jim and Carolyn Wynstra decided to keep their local shops open by incorporating their Dutch heritage into their restaurants. It began with a small restaurant that serves Dutch food and ended with the construction of an 80-foot windmill. Jim and Carolyn soon persuaded other owners to follow their lead, and together they transformed four blocks in the center of town into a historic business area. Not only did the creation of a town theme keep local shops open, it also greatly increased the number of tourists who visit each year.
To partner with the Dutch theme, Lynden celebrates special events that keep the old traditions alive. Holland Days in May offers visitors the opportunity to participate in wooden shoe races, eat special foods, and a chance to see Lynden residents dressed in traditional Dutch costumes scrubbing the downtown streets with brooms and buckets.
Lynden is also home to the Northwest Washington Fair, which brings 200,000 people to the area every year to see the best in agricultural displays and entertainment.
Along with the fair and Holland Days, Lynden offers a taste of Dutch culture and heritage through several antique shows and the Farmers Day Parade. The parade is a tribute to Lynden’s agricultural history with activities for the whole family, and the antique shows offer insight to the community’s history.
If you are planning a trip to Canada this summer, take the time to pass through Lynden and enjoy everything this Dutch community has to offer. It will be worth the detour.
History Lives Through Technology
People from all around the world come to Lynden to see the internationally recognized Lynden Pioneer Museum. The museum covers the history of the pioneers of Washington and houses the largest public collection of horse-drawn vehicles west of the Mississippi.
In the late 1960s, Fred Polander began to collect horse-drawn buggies from farmers and friends throughout the northern part of the United States. In 1976, he donated his collection to the museum.
Along with the collection of buggies, the museum offers exhibits that portray the life of a pioneer and is one of few museums in the western United States that specifically focuses on transportation history.
The Pioneer Museum is currently undergoing a transformation from the typical collection of historical artifacts into a state-of-the-art multimedia-driven collection. Troy Luginbill, the museum’s curator, is working with the local elementary and middle schools to accomplish this feat. Each student is responsible for researching a particular item located in the museum, and then transferring the information into a wireless database.
The transformation will be complete in 2005. Then people visiting the museum will be able to access additional information on every artifact with the use of a hand-held multimedia device.
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