AT A GLANCE
Why go?
The Putter Steam Pumping Station (Putter Stoomgemaal) is one of only eight still-working steam-powered pumping stations in the Netherlands, set in the open meadow landscape of the Polder Arkemheen near Putten on the Veluwe edge. Built in 1885 to drain water from the polder toward the former Zuiderzee, this protected national monument offers a rare chance to watch Victorian-era steam engineering in full operation — boiler stoked, piston driving, scoop wheel turning — exactly as it worked more than a century ago.↗↗
Run entirely by passionate volunteers who restored the station after 35 years of silence, the site hosts about twelve steam days each season (April through October) when visitors can watch the machine in action, hear its rhythm, and even smell the steam and hot oil. Admission is free, the grounds are wheelchair-accessible, and children can earn an assistant-stoker diploma while adults enjoy a cup of coffee in the barn.↗↗
A Working Relic of the Steam Age
The Putter Stoomgemaal sits at Arlersteeg 30–32 in the village of Putten, surrounded by the flat, waterlogged grasslands of the Polder Arkemheen — a designated Natura 2000 area prized for meadow birds. The pumping station was erected in 1885 on the foundations of a demolished windmill, tasked with keeping water levels in the polder at the right height before gravity could carry it out to the Zuiderzee. It did this faithfully for nearly ninety years, until 1971, when electric pumps rendered steam obsolete here.
