Eliot's Travels

Taking the long route home, we decided to check out a few museums in Lelystad, a city that used to be under water in the Zuiderzee (southern sea) at the turn of the century. The Noord-Oost Polder was the first major piece of land to be reclaimed as part of the Zuiderzee reclamation scheme. The key to the project was the completion of the Afsluitdijk between North Holland and Friesland [provinces] in 1932, which separated the Zuiderzee from the open sea, thereby changing it from brine into the freshwater Ijsselmer lake. The draining of the polder was completed in 1936: once dried out, it provided 119,000 acres of new agricultural pasture, which the government handed out under an incentive scheme to prospective settlers. This reclamation project transformed the coastline north and west of Kampden and Elberg - cities in the former Hanseatic League that made their living by the sea.

The Dutch learned from their mistakes on the Noord-Oost Polder when, in the 1950s and 1960s, they drained the two polders that make up the western portion of the province of Flevoland, ringing the new land with a water channel to stop the surrounding land drying out and sinking. The governement also tried hard to make these polders attractive - they're fringed by trees and water-sport facilities. [Rough Guide]

The Nieuwland Erfgoedcentrum is the country's definitive museum on land reclamation. It gives background on the Zuider Zee plan, and uses photos, old maps, models, historical film footage, and interactive computer programmes to illustrate the ongong struggle with the sea. The oldest plan for closing off and reclamation of the Zuiderzee was devised in 1667 by Hendric Stevin, but was technically impossible at the time. Young engineer Corneliu Lely came up with a realistic plan for the closing off and partial reclamation of the Zuiderzee. Lely's plan formed the basis for the Zuiderzee act of 1918, which allowed for the construction of the Afsluitdijk (closing-off dyke). [museum literature] The museum had a wonderful aurdio tour and provided excvellent footage of the building of the Afsluitdijk.

Land from water
A polder is a piece of land surrounded by dykes and dams. Reclaimed lands are polders which were reclaimed from a lake or sea. Without dykes and artificial water control, during a flood approximately 65% of land surface of the Netherlands would be under water. There is a very good reason that the Corps of Engineers is consulting with Holland on water management. The Netherlands has in total almost 3900 polders.

Walls
Dykes are the walls of a polder, and precent the water outside from coming in. The layers of a dyke begin with a sandfilled trench where the foundation is weak. Then, 2 clay loam dams are constructed. Between these is the fill sand. The base of teh dyke is protected from the water by mattresses of willow rods weighted down with strones. Higher up the dyke comes a reed mattress with rubbles, with heave balast pillars. The dyke is covered with grass above the high tide mark.

Cultivation
When the dykes were sealed and pumping-stations had removed the water via channels, locks, and field drains, the polder was still an impassable mud flat. Reeds were planted to promote the evaporation of water and its roots improve the stability of the ground. After the reeds were burned off, coleseed was planted; then followed the cultivation of various grains until finally, the ground was good for growing sugar beet, onions and potatoes. The entire cultivation took 5 to 7 years.

Settlers
Famers couldn't just up and move to the polders. They were selected by the Wieringer Lake Managment and RIJP, based on their agricultural knowledge, experience, capital and their "suitability" as a colonist. Farmers and their wives had to be ready and able to contribute to building a new society. The video interview we watched of the first settlers showed that they were truly pioneers and quite brave to embark on that adventure.

What would a museum be without a kids area. They know how to entertain kids. They had a few interactive areas for kids, but by far the most exciting was the water section. You could check out the different water pump techniques. When the basin filled, it dumped on a man in a bathtub, compelete with toilet brush for his bath. Miles liked just simply floating the fish in the wooden clog along the water ways. Here you could build a dam, close the lock, test out a siphon, and watch bubbles form in water. Every once in awhile a wind storm would kick up (we never figured out how to trigger it). Very cool. Miles hops off the viewing platform via a slide. Here you see a clothesline and a cow behind the undies. Another area contained a archeological dig. The boys and I search for treasure. Surprisingly, they left the sand pretty quickly and went back to the water part. It was just too much fun.

posted by Whitney @ 5:03 AM