Oak Harbor itself has a strong Dutch influence to this day, when one of the annual highlights is Holland Happenings. The town may have been founded by mostly Irish families in the 1860s and 1870s, but the influence of Dutch people who arrived in the 1890s prevailed.
The windmill remains the focal point of the sixty-year-old motel. The electrically-powered blades rotate, whether it’s windy or not. The first floor of the windmill’s interior houses the lobby, decorated with imports from the Netherlands such as tiles, wooden shoes, and figurines. Above the lobby lies the windmill suite, graced with a replace and hand-painted flowers on the walls, as well as everything from a four-poster bed to a dining area to a two-person Jacuzzi. Other rooms offer more basic amenities.
Visitors will also find a mermaid sitting beside her own pond and a chimney complete with nest and stork.
