In 1847, while seeking a location for his Netherlands emigrant followers, the Reverend A.C. Van Raalte was drawn to the potential of Black Lake, or Lake Macatawa, as a harbor, but its outlet to Lake Michigan was blocked by sandbars and silt. After Van Raalte appealed to Congress for help, the channel was surveyed in 1849, though inadequate appropriations prevented it from being successfully opened, leading Dutch settlers to dig the channel themselves. On July 1, 1859, the small steamboat Huron entered port, and in 1866 the government established the harbor's first lifesaving station there. By 1899 the channel had been relocated and harbor work completed, spurring business and resort expansion, and in 1900 more than 1,095 schooners, steamers, and barges used the harbor. The first lighthouse at this location was a small square wooden structure erected in 1872, followed in 1880 by a new light atop a metal pole in a protective cage with an oil lantern lowered by pulleys for service. Around the turn of the century a steel tower was built for the light, and in 1907 the present structure was erected as the Holland Harbor South Pierhead Lighthouse, with a gabled roof reflecting Dutch influence in the area. Popularly called Big Red, it was automated in 1932, and after the U.S. Coast Guard recommended in 1970 that it be abandoned, citizens organized petitions and formed the Holland Harbor Lighthouse Historical Commission to preserve and restore it.