United States Nelis' Dutch Village — Project 2026: Tulip Tower — Project 2027: Kiddie Coaster?

[Zachary]

So I was just casting some broad nets tonight and found a new project at a tiny, little Netherlands-themed family park I had never heard of before called Nelis' Dutch Village up in Holland Township, Michigan. Before I go any further, look at this place. Is that not one of the cutest little theme parks you've ever seen?! I'm obsessed.

Anyway, putting that aside, they just built and opened a 30 foot Sunkid Tower for 2026 themed to tulips called the Tulip Tower. This was reported by local media back in April and appears to have officially opened mid-May:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Direct Link to Embedded Media Source

What I was really interested in though is a tidbit I found in some minutes from a recent township meeting regarding the park's future plans.

Chairman Kortering asked if they were seeking approval for the proposed Kiddie Coaster also. Mr. Bocks stated that they are and explained that it would be located north of the Tulip Tower. Mr. Nelis described the theme of the Kiddie Coaster ride. Mr. Nelis stated that the installation was purchased from Minneapolis and that they hope to start restoring it this summer.

Chairman Kortering asked about a proposed attraction east of the tractor barn and rides. Mr. Bocks stated that attraction is a couple of years away. Mr. Bocks noted that they started working with Outdoor Discovery Center on this educational and play attraction concept. Chairman Kortering clarified that they are asking for approval for this concept. Staff stated that they aren’t comfortable with much more than the Tulip Tower tonight and that more details are needed for the other installations.

I've attached the full meeting minutes to this post below for anyone who may want more context.

Anyway, does anyone know what used kiddie coasters may have been for sale in the Minneapolis area recently...? I checked RCDB and didn't see anything obvious there, so maybe it was traveling previously...? Would be super curious if anyone knows more!

Also, if anyone has been to this place, please tell me it is as delightful as it appears from afar!

 

[GASM]

Anyway, does anyone know what used kiddie coasters may have been for sale in the Minneapolis area recently...?

Being that it says they plan to restore it, I wonder if it could be one of the old Como Town coasters that don’t seem to have resurfaced at all.

What an absolutely adorable little park.

 

[RollyCoaster]

Yeah, this was my initial guess too.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Direct Link to Embedded Media Source

 

[jpnelis]

We bought a very small, somewhat antique, and very much in need of restoration, children's roller coaster. Photo attached. It was one of two amusement rides in the auction of a collection of collectible carnival and circus items of Bill Nunn, the owner of Skyrock Farms (a horse farm) in Medina. We received no information of it, or with it, and would love to have some idea where this particular model may have been located before or originally came from.

Industry friends have identified it as either a B. A. Schiff model, or a Molina and Sons model. One thing we need to get this operating in Michigan is a year of manufacture but we haven't located any tags or badges on anything other than the electric motor.

We plan to theme it as best we can according to a Dutch-themed American fairy tale, called Wynken, Blynken and Nod, written by Eugene Field, published in 1889. We're assuming the poem is public domain.

 

[Zachary]

Hey @jpnelis! Welcome! Super neat to see the owner of a park (and a mystery coaster!) drop in like this!

I haven't had any time yet to jump down this rabbit hole just yet, but I'll poke around and see if I can find anything out there that could solidify the manufacturer question. It's pretty far outside my wheelhouse personally, but I can also put out some feelers to other people in the community who may know better or may know someone else who does.

I know it's "just" a kiddie coaster, but I think many of the coaster enthusiasts out there would love to put our heads together a bit and try to dig up some info on its pedigree for you—especially if doing so could result in helping to get it back up and running!

Also, sidenote, but your park really does look absolutely adorable and I love the thematic concept you have in mind for the coaster!

 

[jpnelis]

Also an interesting clue as to its' origin:


These cars are in such horrible shape we may end up re-fabricating these from the basic chassis on up. So we'd love to find another non-operating unit where they might have been stored in better shape. And to get the fifth car which was missing.

 

[Zachary]

Found a couple details that may help anyone else who's looking into this thing.

First off, the coaster definitely operated at Skyrock Farms for special events and, presumably, on the public open house days that were held to view the collection. This article from 2016 specifically notes the coaster's availability during special events:

Clients can use caterers of their choice or take advantage of Stacy’s home cooking. For outdoor events, rental tents fit nicely in the landscaped yard. A small (but rideable!) mid-century train and roller coaster provide memorable entertainment for all ages.

Diving into the Wayback Machine, I found a couple absolute gems from when the coaster ran at Skyrock.

First off, here's a photo showing the coaster in the background behind two of the farm's other attractions:



Secondly, I found this much tinier photo that was used as an icon on the Skyrock Farm website:



The archived website links out to what would have been a larger photo of the coaster, but, unfortunately that image was never captured in the Wayback Machine's archives.

I haven't found much detail on the archived web pages of the Skyrock Farm site yet, but I did find what likely solves @jpnelis' question regarding the identify of the ride's manufacturer and what year it was manufactured! Back in 2011, the Skyrock Farms site identified the coaster as "1957 Shiff Roller Coaster." Obviously don't have any documentation to back up Skyrock's claim and the "Shiff" from the website is all but certainly a typo that should have said "Schiff," meaning B. A. Schiff & Associates. The coaster stayed listed on Skyrock Farm's site unchanged until at least 2015.



By June of 2016, the website was overhauled and, seemingly, all mention of the roller coaster was removed. A price list for offerings during event rentals included the train, carousel, and the "kiddy plane ride," but yeah, zero mention of the coaster. This conflicts a little with the first link I found from that events venue listing site since that article was posted in October 2016. I would tend to think that, if the coaster were available at that time though, it would have still been represented somewhere on the official website? Maybe the events facility listing site was working with old info?

I won't claim to have manually clicked through every last archive of every page on the Skyrock Farms website after 2016, but a brief survey didn't turn up any other coaster mentions.

Was it still installed at Skyrock Farm when you purchased it @jpnelis?

Anyway, hopefully some of that was helpful! Back to searching!

 

[Shane]

It's posts like these that make me surface once or twice a year. So Tweetsie Railroad owned one of these exact same models until around 1994. It kinda makes me wonder if it was the same one. I would reach out to Tweetsie, they are very responsive and extremely helpful, they just might have some old documentation saved. Apparently, Ghost Town in the Sky has/had one that is SBNO, but its been listed as SBNO since 2010. I am sure it's completely rusted out and disintegrated at this point if it is even still there at all; especially since yours was SBNO for significantly less time. I know Ghost Town was slated for redevelopment a few years back so it may not be there any longer. It's hard to say.

It looks like the only one that I can find that is actually operating is at Springfields Fun Park & Pony Centre St Columb Major, Cornwall, England and they opened theirs last year. If anything they might be able to provide you with a photocopy of the owners manual for theirs? There appear to be others but RCDB is not the most reliable with these obscure very old models.

 

[Shane]

Zach and I did some more deep diving into these vintage B.A. Schiff & Associates models and may have found some leads that should help you out with both the paperwork and tracking down that missing car.

B.A. Schiff (out of Miami) 5-car oval "Kiddie Coasters" were mass-produced from 1951 through the late 1960s. The identical sister model we’ve been looking at is Tumbleweed over at the abandoned Ghost Town in the Sky park in Maggie Valley North Carolina, and that specific unit opened in 1961.

Tumbleweed, is still fully intact sitting up on the mountain as of last year per this youtube video (thanks Zach). The park's ownership actually just underwent a massive shift. Following a lengthy legal battle and the passing of developer Frankie Wood, full control of the property defaulted to Jill McClure. The property is facing some heavy tax burdens right now, so there is a very real chance she might be open to liquidating smaller assets. It could be worth having your team try to contact her estate counsel to see if you can buy Tumbleweed's cars or the whole ride for parts and restoration molds.

Deadwood is actively restoring one right now that is slated to open for their 2027 season. Activities - Deadwood They closed it in 2021 for a complete overhaul.

"Sharkbite" at Captain Kid Amusement Park in Seaside, Oregon has a fully operational model. https://www.captainkidamusementpark.com/roller-coaster/

 

[Zachary]

There's actually one up for sale right now on Facebook Marketplace, but it's unfortunately all the way over in the UK. Excellent shape though!

I did find the auction flyer for the coaster @jpnelis bought and it had a couple more photos of the coaster as it was installed at Skyrock in the immediate lead up to the auction:



The bit in the description about "mostly steel legs, but a few have been replaced with wooden ones" caught my eye. Looking at the photo above and comparing it to its sisters elsewhere, it became immediately clear that the one from Skyrock, despite being stalled like a park model, is not actually a park model. At some point this coaster was removed from it's trailer and wooden supports were installed to provide replacement structure. I believe the motor pictured would also have been a retrofit job, but I haven't dug into that yet.

The video clip @Shane linked above showing the Ghost Town in the Sky install shows what the lift supports for a park model should look like. This park model on RCDB has some great photos of what a non-trailer-mount station and lift support structure would look like too. Meanwhile, the Sharkbite example @Shane linked above perfectly shows the trailer intact on a trailer mounted version. Note how the trailer would have taken the place of all the wood shown in the photo above.

Chatting with @Shane, he pointed out that this likely explains the lack of any sort of brand markings, a plaque with ride info, etc—all of that was likely mounted to the coaster's original trailer.

So yeah, anyone trying to figure out where this coaster came from prior to its arrival at Skyrock, skip the park models, we're looking for a trailer mounted one.

 

[GASM]

It took me until right now to realize this is in Holland, Michigan. Good lord I might be dumb.

I really don’t have anything to contribute here, but I just wanted to say that this conversation has been one of the absolute coolest things I’ve seen on ParkFans.

 

[TPoseOnTantrum]

Currently my best guess is this, which was in St Paul Minnesota up to 2001; Kiddie Coaster - Como Town (St. Paul, Minnesota, United States)

RCDB says it was built in 1975 though, contrary to the 1957 info (hmmmm I wonder if there's a typo). The train just doesn't match though.

I've been given some ride manuals to pass on for good measure. You nerds are welcome to read.

It's amazing that this coaster has been set up for at least 15 years in the US without being documented by RCDB. I'm sure this met the standards needed to appear on the site. Very very under the radar.

 

[Zachary]

@TPoseOnTantrum—do you have any way to tell the Milers from the Schiff/Molinas? I know they're all incredibly similar and I've seen a lot of notes from RCDB about difficulties differentiating them. One of the RCDB notes I saw mentioned some difference in the wheel assemblies? Not sure of any details though.

I ask because the Como Town theory is a good one aside from the year (which I agree could be a typo in either direction...?) and the claimed manufacturer difference between what Skyrock thought they had and what RCDB says the Como Town coaster was.

Speaking of RCDB, they work fast! Look what just appeared:

unknown - Nelis' Dutch Village (Holland, Michigan, United States)

Looking for statistics on the fastest, tallest or longest roller coasters? Find it all and much more with the interactive Roller Coaster Database.

rcdb.com

I'm planning to shoot RCDB an email tomorrow with details about the coaster's time at Skyrock Farm, but if Duane or someone else over there is reading this thread, feel free to lift whatever I've shared (and pitch in if you know how to differentiate between those wheel assemblies!)

@jpnelis, is there any way we could get some detailed photos of a wheel assembly on the coaster you bought? That may be super helpful to confirm whether or not Skyrock was right about what they had.

 

[Shane]

@TPoseOnTantrum, how do you just randomly have the manuals for this ride? There is a story there for sure.

I had no idea that Molina acquired Schiff's assets, so they are essentially one in the same then.

If it is indeed a E&F Miler and not a Schiff then that is better news. Miler is still in business and could probably recertify the ride. E&F Miler Industries

 

[Zachary]

Okay, 30 minutes of intensive RCDB research later, and I'm now confident that Skyrock was wrong about the manufacturer. I haven't done a deep dive into Miler to know exactly what to look for and we don't have great photos of the mystery Skyrock/Niles coaster wheel assemblies yet anyway, but based on this photo of one of the wheel assemblies in the auction flier (below), I can say with confidence that it matches no Schiff I could put eyes on.



This photo from RCDB of Roller Coaster 5 (an undisputed Schiff as far as I can tell) shows the wheel assembly design that I found was emblematic of all of the Schiffs I looked through. Not one Schiff I found had a separate axel with two running wheels as is depicted in that auction photo. From what I can tell, that design is, however, commonplace with Milers. Check out this photo of Little Coaster, for instance—exact match by my eye.

Assuming I'm right, I think this discovery necessarily calls into question the manufacturing year of the coaster Skyrock had posted on their website back in the day too... meaning we may be back to square one in a sense.... but at least we aren't chasing a ghost anymore?

If it is indeed a E&F Miler and not a Schiff then that is better news. Miler is still in business and could probably recertify the ride. E&F Miler Industries

Super slight correction here. If this is a Miler (don't want to say that with 100% certainly without better photos and doing more research—I'm just confident it's not a Schiff now), it's a Miler Manufacturing coaster, not an E&F Miler. RCDB has a little blurb here about the difference. A few sources online say E&F does still support and restore Miler Manufacturing coasters though so, if this is a Miler, @jpnelis should definitely reach out to them! Maybe there's some chance they even have some old sales records from Miler Manufacturing which could be informative re: the coaster's actual history?

 

[jpnelis]

A few comments:

By the time we arrived at Skyrock Farms to pick up our auction winning(s), the coaster had been disassembled and all the pieces were dumped on the side of a hill, along with the "Rocket Ride." Evidently they had to replace a septic drain field that was under both rides.

Here's the wheel assembly in a better photo, still from the auction listing, but I can confirm they look exactly like this.



The Arnold's Park lead seems to be spot on. I'm reaching out to them to see what help / information might be available.

Thanks everyone!

Joe

 

[magnumfan]

I believe miller made exclusively steel sided cars, while molina and sons used fiberglass. That's one way to tell them apart

 

[Zachary]

I wanted to narrow down the coaster's time at Skyrock Farm so I dug through some historical satellite imagery (Google Earth and the county's).

The last imagery I could find without the coaster prior to the coaster's addition at Skyrock is from 2009:



Then the very first imagery I could find featuring the coaster was taken on May 19th, 2010:



The coaster remained installed throughout every satellite image I could find through at least July 4th, 2025:



That image is incredibly blurry, but the country GIS system has a much clearer image from 2025 as well:



Obviously we don't know when the coaster was and wasn't operating/operational, but it seems like we can say conclusively that the coaster was installed at Skyrock Farm at some point from 1/2009 to 5/2010 and remained there until at least July 4th, 2025—a period of over 15 years ending just last year and it had been completely unknown to RCDB and the thoosie community over that whole period. Insane.

It also seems worth noting that every image of the coaster we have at Skyrock thus far has the fifth car missing.

So for anyone looking for this coaster pre-Skyrock, I think we're looking for a previously-trailer-mounted, oval, very likely Miler Manufacturing-made kiddie coaster which vanished from the known record no later than 5/2010. Possible oddities to look for:

1. It lost its fifth car at some point. If someone knows of a four car Miler that vanished prior to 5/2010, that could be quite interesting.
2. It was cut off its trailer at some point and used wooden supports to compensate at Skyrock. If anyone knows of a Miler that operated with a similarly sketchy lift setup and that vanished after 5/2010, please share.
3. Many of the Miler kiddie coasters that aren't on trailers essentially sit at ground level—check out this otherwise promising candidate for an example of what I mean. That can't be Nelis' coaster because the entire course of the Nelis' coaster is raised notably off the ground on its (presumably original) support structure. The Como Town Miler that @TPoseOnTantrum linked previously is a good example of the layout height we're looking for.

Broadly speaking, I do really like @TPoseOnTantrum's best guess right now. I do firmly believe Skyrock was wrong and we're not looking for a Schiff, what we've seen of the coaster seems to match contemporaneous Milers to a tee, Como Town makes geographic sense for the coaster to end up at Skyrock Farm, and at least as far as I know (really just relying on RCDB here), the Como Town Miler is unaccounted for after 2001. Obviously none of this is evidence, but it's definitely something worth some more investigation probably.

 

[Zachary]

Another development: Against my better judgement, I took one for the team and used Bing.

It was well worth it though! Bing somehow indexed a still live backup of the 2011-era Skyrock Farms website hosted on a subdomain of the main Skyrock Farms site! So not only can people still easily browse a live version of the Skyrock website from the era that featured the coaster, but even more importantly, we can retrieve that larger photo of the coaster that was never archived by the Wayback Machine!

Live Skyrock Farm website backup:

The Nunn Organ Collection - Skyrock Carousel.com

Photo of the coaster:



We know from the Wayback Machine archive that this photo was taken absolutely no later than August 24th, 2011, so this is almost certainly the oldest photo of the coaster we have while it was at Skyrock Farm.

Also in the photo and media department, while none of this will be new for @jpnelis, all of the original auction media may be helpful for people looking at the specifics of the coaster as built at Skyrock Farm. An original auction listing for the coaster is still live here. Date of the auction was September 27th, 2025.

Video of the coaster as it existed around 2025 at Skyrock in the lead-up to the auction:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Direct Link to Embedded Media Source

20 photos from that same period:

 

[GoHokies87]

found your bogies:

unknown - Isla del Coco (Havana, Havana, Cuba)

Looking for statistics on the fastest, tallest or longest roller coasters? Find it all and much more with the interactive Roller Coaster Database.

rcdb.com