Big Red Lighthouse

Holland Harbor's South Pierhead Lighthouse, know as Big Red, was not always big, not always red, and not always a lighthouse.  The fascinating and misunderstood history of Holland's navigational aid began when the United States Lighthouse Board erected a small beacon light at Holland in 1870 after visionary Dutch settlers spearheaded the development of a navigable channel - one that connected their new colony on the shores of Black Lake with Lake Michigan, the Great Lakes, and beyond.

That first light and three navigational aids built as improvements over the next 66 years played critical roles in safely guiding mariners along Michigan's treacherous coast and into Holland's harbor, allowing the town to develop first into a busy commercial port and later into a tourist destination.