De Zoeker (The Seeker)
Type:Oil windmill
Since:1672
Owner:Vereniging De Zaansche Molen
Miller:Ruud Nieuwhof
Location:Zaanse Schans, Kalverringdijk 31, 1509 BT Zaandam
Phonenumber:+31 75-6287942
E-mail:[email protected]

HISTORY

De Zoeker is the windmill around which the Society of Zaan Mills was established, although it was not then located on its present site along the Kalverringdijk in Zaandam. De Zoeker was situated on the Westerzijderveld in Zaandijk, where it was built in 1672.
De Zoeker spent much of its working life as an oil mill before being converted in 1891 into a dye mill.
The oil work was installed 10 years later to process vegetable oil from different kinds of oil seed, such as linseed and rape seed.
In the early 50s, the Zaandijk municipality guaranteed the future of De Zoeker by buying the mill. By 1958, De Zoeker was doing what it had done for three centuries: operating as an oil mill.

World news
A decade later, the mill became world news: in a spectacular operation, it was moved from the Westzijderveld over a railway line and through the village to the other side of the River Zaan on the Zaanse Schans.
Later that same year, the mill was ready to go back to work and the Zaandijk municipality handed over this unique monument to the Society of Zaan Wind Mills.

 

More history: Click here