Although Holland Happening won’t be happening this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s still OK to celebrate Oak Harbor’s Dutch roots, which run deep.

The late Whidbey News-Times editor, reporter and longtime columnist Dorothy Neil chronicled much of the community’s Dutch heritage in books and columns she wrote over many decades. The following was compiled from Neil’s musings:

When the Dutch immigrants arrived in 1894, Oak Harbor had already been settled for many decades. It was a small village with several wooden buildings surrounding a marketplace. The Dutch immigrants chose to settle on Whidbey Island after witnessing the Skagit Flats flood.

The Hollanders left their province on the western coast of the Netherlands in 1613. They settled in New Amsterdam or what would later be called New York City. It took them 300 years to travel across the continental United States from New York to Whidbey. Along the way they established communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota.

They would arrive by steamboat to the rugged, arcadian Whidbey Island.

In a few short years after their arrival, the Dutch immigrants would become essential for Oak Harbor’s expansion. Despite the impact of the Dutch, Neil wrote that “there was little to call attention to its Dutch heritage until the late 1940s when an annual festival, ‘Holland Happening’ was held. A Holland Gardens park, a ‘big windmill’ at City Beach, and the ‘Auld Holland Inn’ on Highway 20 complete with windmill and Kasteel Franssen restaurant and the tulip extravaganza in Ramaley Memorial Park have appeared to brighten the Dutch Village of Oak Harbor.”

In her book “By Canoe and Sailing Ship they Came,” Neil writes, “Life was very hard for many of the Dutch settlers those first years. Many were poor having lost all they had in a Dakota drought or in the 1893 Depression.

Those who did not have money to buy farms already cleared were able to buy uncleared land. The clearing of this land was a formidable task, and it was impossible to raise adequate crops during those first years. Many families lived in log houses, life was hard and money scarce. Some made a few dollars by cutting fuel for the wood-burning steamers that plied the Sound.”

She notes that Jerome Ely, the man who would become Oak Harbor’s first mayor, knew the Hollanders as industrious and thrifty. “During the first year the Hollanders produced 80,000 pounds of potatoes and saw the price go up from $10 a ton from a low of $5. It was a good omen and potatoes became a symbol of success.”

Shortly afterward, word of the island’s prosperity reached Dutch communities in Michigan. Dutch Immigrant R.E. Werkman returned to Michigan with samples of the crops grown on Whidbey, and within two years, the population of Dutch immigrants skyrocketed from 18 to 213.

The Dutch immigrants took up farming positions in Crescent Harbor, Swantown, Clover Valley and San de Fuca and they ingrained themselves in the local community. They served on town council and as county commissioners. They entered community service and opened grocery stores, butcher shops, blacksmithing facilities and real estate offices.

The Hollanders were instrumental in constructing the Whidbey landmark, the Neil Barn in 1913. It was constructed by Dutch Otto Van Dyk. At the time the concept of the barn’s round roof was new and a feat of engineering. The barn would become the first of its kind west of the Mississippi River. Its construction would be commemorated with a huge barn-dance which brought people from Seattle, Everett, and surround communities.

However, Neil writes that “the Hollanders didn’t take part in the barn-warming, as dancing was forbidden by their church affiliations, but Otto Van Dyk’s big round-roofed barn, which upon completion was the largest barn on the West Coast, is still a silent testimony to good workmanship and vision in the community where he became one of its outstanding builders.”

Today the Neil Barn is known as the Roller Barn and efforts are underway to restore the building to its former glory.

The Hollanders brought with them their love of ice skating.

“Hastie Lake was then a big lake between Oak Harbor and San de Fuca, and when it froze over, everyone went skating,” Neil writes. “There were home-made sleds and sleds built like a chair with a high back. The skater pushed the sled with his passenger on board. Old Timers told of the Zylstra family who lived nearby, setting up a wood stove and selling coffee and cocoa, along with sandwiches for the skaters.

In addition to ice skating, the Hollanders brought their celebration of “Sinterklaas,” one of the sources of the modern day Santa Claus. And many of their foods, such as Hutspot and Olie Bollen, are staples in the annual Holland Happening.

The Hollanders celebrated their first Fourth of July in 1896 with a picnic in the woods at the edge of West beach. They read the Declaration of Independence, and the “Star Spangled Banner,” “Red, White and Blue,” and “Marching Through Georgia. “

The Island County Times recorded the event in an article, “It is hoped we may meet again next year in increased numbers to celebrate the Independence of the country now our own, and ever more shall be. So be it.”

Despite their patriotism for their new-found country, there was a clash between the older generation of immigrants who wanted to hold on to their roots, and their children who sought to adopt the customs of the New World.

“The first immigrants spoke only their own language, and when they built their own churches they held services in the language of Holland,” Neil writes in “The Dutch Book: Celebrating 100 years on Whidbey Island.” “The young people took a somewhat dim view of this adherence to old traditions and rebelled. They were Americans now, they reasoned, and refused to learn the language of the ‘old country,’ or to retain customs. But as late as the 1930s Dutch churches conducted at least one service per Sunday in the old language.”

Oak Harbour’s first community band was comprised of four Dutch brothers. Martinus, Malenus, Henry and George Heller formed the band in 1911. They became so popular that others asked to join their ranks.

“So anyone who could tootle a horn or (had) one to tootle joined in teaching others to play,” Neil writes. “As new Americans, the first number they learned to play was ‘Dixie.’”

The Dutch population declined during World War II. The Navy established the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Generations of Dutch farmers in Clover Valley and Maylor’s Point had to make way for Ault Field and the Seaplane Base. Some of the farmhouses were moved by the Navy to new sites and used as personnel quarters.

Neil writes, “Bewildered at the swift turn of events during those early days of World War II, farmers left ancestral lands, neighbors and the community where they had always lived to do their part in the war effort. Many of them bought other farms in Skagit and Whatcom counties, some retired as farmers staying on in Oak Harbor and finding work at the base or starting businesses.

Ault Field, with its landing strips, was built in fertile Clover Valley where early-day Hollanders cleared land for farms before the turn of the century. Maylor’s Point became part of the Seaplane Base where flying boxcars,” such as the PBY’s were based in the early 1940s, flying missions to Alaska. Many of the farmhouses, however, were moved by the Navy to new sites, kept to make needed quarters for Navy Personnel in those days of a critical housing shortage, and are still being used in that capacity.”

Despite the exodus, the influence of many of the Dutch immigrants is recorded on the streets of Oak Harbor and Whidbey Island. Fakkema Road, Heller Street, Zylstra Road, Beeksma Drive, Nienhuis Street, are named after early Dutch immigrants.

Earlier this year, the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce decided to reverse a decision to change the of the festival to the more generalized “Spring Festival.”

Many Dutch aspects of the festival had faded over the 51 years, leading to the proposed name change. But when the Oak Harbor community petitioned to restore the traditional name, “Holland Happening,” the community showed it was intent on celebrating the city’s Dutch heritage.