Wind power is causing a storm lately in many parts of the world, and not always for the right reasons. Whilst wildlife lovers ponder the perrilous nature of whirling blades for migrating birds, there are many greenies out there happy to put up with whomping turbines if it means less nuclear waste (that other clean energy).
Who would have thought then that 80 years after electricity reached rural America, the humble windmill would make a comeback, especially for farmers keen to power pumps in remote pastures.
The windmill after all won the West.
What’s that you say? The Windmil? Yes indeed, read Stuart Leuthner’s Fall 2003 piece on AmericanHeritage.com The Windmills That Won the West and you’ll discover that:
The windmill, even more than the railroad, was crucial to settling the West. Windmills permitted ranchers and farmers to live and work on land where there was no reliable natural water supply, which was most of the frontier. And when the tracks started to reach toward the Pacific, windmills supplied the water for the locomotives and those who served them.
Luethner goes on to describe how the infamous Sears, Roebuck catalogue “claimed to offer the most complete line of mills and showcased them in a 118-page supplement”. The company even offered instructions on choosing the best location for your mill.
It’s a great piece to educate yourself about an important part of western history and opened my eyes to a whole industry that sprang up in remote ranchlands - the cowboy engineer. I’m thinking of a whole army of gun toting Windy Millers who can build a fence, dig a well and fix a broken windmill:
Cowboys found they could increase their income by learning to dig wells and erect, maintain, and repair the windmills that pulled water out of them. They traveled across the Plains under the direction of “windmill bosses,” carrying their tools and food in covered wagons and sleeping under the stars. Owners of big ranches often employed crews of windmillers to make continuous rounds of their spreads.
In the 21st century, the best place to see these historic artifacts from the days of westward expansion is the American Wind Power Center, a dedicated windmill museum in Lubbock, Texas.
Texas is, of course, a state more often associated with drilling for oil but now has its own alternative energy training center in the shape of The WindSmith Academy which offers two day courses for people who want to learn the basic tenets of wind power generation.
If you can’t make it to Lubbock then how about picking up a copy of David Stoecklein’s new photography book, Windmills of the West: Rural America’s Most Important Invention. That should be a good taster of 19th century windpower engineering.
