Windmill Wonderland

Unique center provides home for history

by Noma Rodriquez, feature editor

Water pumping, grain grinding, and sawing. Those are just a few of the tasks that windmills have been used for.

Today, windmills are not as common or necessary as they were back in the pioneer days, but large ranches, and even businesses, still find windmills to be more economical.

Between 1854 and 1920, there were more than 700 windmill companies.

“Different people had a different idea of what would make a windmill work,” says Tanya L. Meadows, administrative assistant for the American Wind Power Center in Lubbock. “They just made different ones.”

Now, there are only three companies in the United States that make water pumps, and two companies that make windmills. One company called Aermotor, dating back to the 1880s, still exists today and is located in San Angelo, Texas.

The American Wind Power Center, formally known as the National Windmill Project, was established in Lubbock in 1993 as a non-profit organization by a Texas Tech University professor named Billy Wolf and Coy Harris, CEO of Wind Engineering Corporation. The purpose of this facility was to display windmills and inform others about the importance of the windmill.

According to “The History of The American Wind Power Center” by Coy F. Harris, the idea came to her [Wolf] around the mid 1960s when she was teaching her Housing Design for Family Living course. In the pictures that she would present to her students, a windmill was present.

“Back then, windmills were just as important as a house,” says Meadows.

As time went on, the windmills were disappearing, and they soon “became the focus of her [Wolf’s] attention.”

Through conversation with Wolf, Dr. Grover Murray, president of Texas Tech at the time, realized the importance the windmill played in the early settlement. With the expansion of the Texas Tech Museum, Murray envisioned a whole section of windmills. Murray encouraged Wolf to continue her studies and funded her work through his office. At the time, there was not a suitable collection of windmills that could be displayed, and that section of the museum was never built.

For 30 years, Wolf’s search for windmills continued, as she interviewed ranchers and farmers. Often, she would secure a windmill and ship it back to Lubbock. In 1992, Wolf was informed about a private collector in Nebraska. There she met Don Hundly, owner of the Windmill Hill Museum. Hundly had many restored windmills, hand pumps, and rare windmill weights in his possession.

Through negotiation and a promise to keep all the collection in tact, Wolf bought the collection for $250,000. The entire collection consisted of 48 windmills, 171 weights, 56 pumps, and many photographs and models, all of which were brought back to Lubbock and stored in a warehouse, awaiting a permanent home.

For about four years, Harris and Wolf worked together to find funding for the program. In the fall of 1996, Wolf suffered from a stroke, which didn’t allow her to continue her work with the project.

In 1997, the City of Lubbock offered 28 acres of land for the project to reside. The location is just south of Mackenzie Park. In November 1997, Wolf passed away, without being able to see the first windmill go up on the property.

Now, the American Wind Power Center has 107 windmills inside and 53 windmills outside. Meadows said that there are more in storage that need restoration. The Hundly collection was the beginning of the exhibit.

This center has been recognized as the place to visit for windmill observation. During a tour of the exhibit, Meadows explained that the windmill was not only used for pumping water. It was also used to aid in other tasks such as grinding grain, powering a saw mill, a post office, and as a land mark. She said that the windmill was a way of giving directions. The American Wind Power Center holds two of the second largest windmills: The Southern Cross and the Texas Pattern Eclipse, manufactured from 1905-1916. Both of the wheels are 25 feet in diameter.

Meadows says she explains the size to touring groups of school children by this analogy. “If I took the wheel down, laid it on the floor, and put your teacher’s desk and 70 students inside of it, there would still be plenty of enough space left to walk around.”

The museum features many different kinds of windmills. There is the original wheel, which are the sectional wheels and the solid wheels. The sectional wheel opened and closed every time it caught wind. The solid wheel had a tail with a weight on the end of it. The opening and closing movements and the weights are used to help govern the speed of the pump.

Meadows says, “If you know your weights, you’ll know who made the windmill.”

Although windmills were not designed for architectural significance, they had many different features. They were all designed to perform the way the designer thought would make a windmill of more use.

Take the Twin Wheel, for example. This windmill had two wheels instead of one. Meadows says the idea behind it was, “Twice the wheel twice the water.” She explained that there was more force when the water was brought up, but “it made half again of water as a single wheel.” That means it didn’t produce as much water as a single-wheeled windmill.  She said it was great for irrigation, but not for farmers.

“A mama cow with one calf will drink up to 30 gallons of water in one day,” explains Meadows.

Meadows said the Aermotor company was the most innovative windmill company.

“They really thought of the woman,” says Meadows. “Instead of having to climb up the windmill to oil the gears, they could just unlatch the windmill, bringing the wheel down, lock it, and oiling it with a broom stick and a rag. Then when she was done, she would unlatch it, raise the wheel back up, and lock it back in place.”

Windmills are not as common now as they were back in the pioneer days, but they are still around. Big ranches use them because it’s cheaper. Meadows says that it’s $1,000 a mile for electricity.

“If you live 20 miles outside of town, that’s $20,000 a month,” explains Meadows. “If you spend about $16,000 to place a windmill on your property, you won’t have to pay a huge electric bill.”

“Windmills are in any area with an average wind of 14 miles per hour,” Meadows added.

Among the many windmills from the Hundly collection, the Smithsonian Museum, located in Washington D.C., wants two of the windmills that were promised to be kept with all the rest. One of them is the first all-metal windmill, the Iron Turban. This windmill was so expensive it cost as much as a house. The other is the Halladay Standard, made in 1867. The Halladay Standard is also the oldest windmill the museum has.

“Our goal is to have 300 windmills on the plain,” says Meadows.

The facility is a non-profit organization. Their advertisement is by word of mouth and references. On the grounds, there is a banquet hall that is rented out for $750, but is subject to change. It seats 300 people, with air conditioning and heating, and garage doors that can be opened to look out on the plain.

There is a mural that is in the process of being painted. The mural will show the progression of the windmill. It will show windmills from the Dutch-mill to the current mills that are produced now. When it is complete, there should be more than 100 windmills in it.

To visit and experience the wonder of the windmill, call (806) 747-8734 to set up a guided tour, or walk through it yourself. The American Wind Power Center is located on 1701 Canyon Lake Drive. It is open Tuesday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Sundays, it is open from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. There is not a regular admission fee, but a $5 donation for singles and $10 donation for families is suggested.

All photos by Britni Palomino / Plainsman press