Nederland - Nijkerk, Stoomgemaal Arkemheen

Polder Arkemheen is one of the oldest polders in the Netherlands. In 1356, Graaf Reinoud III van Gelderland granted the inhabitants living there the right to build dikes. For several centuries the polder was able to drain naturally into what was then the Zuiderzee. There was already talk, in 1820, about using a windmill for drainage, but it took until 1863 for the mill to be built, which was named Hertog Reijnout.

Twenty years later, in 1883, the windmill was replaced by a steam pumping engine. The old windmill was converted into a home for the pumping station´s operator. The pumping engine has two paddlewheels and can drain an area of 3.000 hectares. It was in service for exactly 100 years. Then, in 1983, drainage was taken over by an electric pumping engine.

After a restoration, the steam pumping engine - in the meantime named Stoomgemaal Arkemheen - is open for visitors and is stoked about twelf times every year, occasionally helping out when the electric pumping engine cannot handle the capacity on its own. Stoomgemaal Arkemheen is recognized as a Dutch national monument.