Noordoostpolder
The original 1891 plan called for the largest, southeastern polder to be built after the Wieringermeer, but it was decided in 1932 to give precedence to the northeastern one, which was smaller and therefore considered easier. This would be the Noordoostpolder (Northeast-polder). Due to initial financial difficulties, construction did not begin until 1936. Two dikes, totaling 55 km in length, steadily grew in the IJsselmeer, one from Lemmer in Friesland to the island of Urk, the other from Vollenhove in Overijssel to Urk. Construction of these dikes and the necessary pumping stations was disrupted during World War II during the 1940 German conquest of the Netherlands. The encircling dikes were both closed in December 1940, and the pumping stations started draining in early 1941. The Noordoostpolder was considered to be sufficiently drained in September 1942, and the developmental process was then put in motion on the 480 km² of new land.
The task of building the Noordoostpolder was eased by the earlier experience, the now placid waters of the IJsselmeer, and the mechanisation of the construction process. Machines, sometimes made specifically for the Zuiderzee Works, were increasingly used for this and the final polders. Land usage was much the same as in the Wieringermeer, again focusing on farming, with less fertile areas designated as forest land. Land in the polders was state-owned during the entire developmental process, but several years after this was completed the various plots were distributed among private parties. Priority to the early pioneers who had been in the polder since the start. Later, farmers from all over the Netherlands became eligible for the remainder. Candidates were put through a selection process before receiving their own pieces of new land.
The North Sea flood of 1953 made the government change their priorities. Instead of granting the new land only to farmers selected for the skill, the government granted land to a large number of farmers from the flooded province of Zeeland.
The polder contains two former islands: the glacial moraine hill of Urk, and the elongated strip of peat land known as Schokland, abandoned in the 19th century. Urk was then and is still today a fishing community and it served as a natural construction-island for both dikes as well as a base of operations for the later exploitation of the polder. Both ceased to be islands: Urk on October 3, 1939, when the dike reaching from Lemmer was closed and Schokland when the surrounding water was consequently drained. Both islands stand out in the new land, physically and figuratively. The community of Urk in particular has remained an entity somewhat distinct from the "mainland". It is a separate municipality from the rest of the polder, which was organized as the municipality of Noordoostpolder in 1962. The town of Kuinre was cut off from the open water, lost businesses and status.
At the heart of the Noordoostpolder, where the three main drainage canals intersect, is the town of Emmeloord (1943). Planned to be the first and the only major town of the polder, it serves as the local governmental and services center. Ten smaller villages, conceived more as agricultural communities, were planned in a wide circle around Emmeloord, at a distance chosen to be easily covered by bicycle. The first settlements were Ens, Marknesse and Kraggenburg (1949), followed by Luttelgeest (1950), Bant (1951), then Creil and Rutten (1953), and finally Espel, Tollebeek, and Nagele (1956). From Emmeloord three canals take their water to three pumping stations, the Buma near Lemmer, the Smeenge at Vollenhove, and finally the Vissering in Urk. The first two are electrically powered (though connected to different power-plants) while the latter one has diesel power. Like all pumping stations of the Zuiderzee Works, they are named for individuals who made significant contributions to the project.
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