Day Trips
The American Wind Power Center has one of the largest collections of windmills in the world
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Feb. 25, 2005
The American Wind Power Center captures the elusive winds of history. More than a hundred different types of windmills fill the museum's big, red barn and the hilltop southeast of downtown Lubbock.
It is hard to believe that there are that many different kinds of windmills until they are assembled in a row. Standing as lone sentinels silhouetted by the setting sun, all windmills look pretty much alike. Up close the uniqueness of different types becomes apparent. There are wind catchers that have blades that fold open; some have blades made of wood. Others have lots of thin blades while others have a few fat blades.
The center's collection includes just a small percentage of the more than 700 types of windmills manufactured during the last century. These daisies of the plains pumped water for the steam engines of the railroads, delivered water to remote herds, and encouraged settlement away from the rivers.
Windmills are rapidly becoming relics of the past, replaced by electricity. The dropping water table has also affected the wind-driven pumps' usefulness. Underground water that once could be found within 100 feet of the surface now requires wells at least three times that depth.
By the mid-Sixties, Billie Wolfe, a faculty member of Texas Tech University began noticing the decline of the windmills on farms and ranches. Over the next three decades, she collected photographs of windmills around the world, plus more than a few actual specimens.
In 1993, Wolfe met Coy Harris, current executive director of the windmill museum, and they formed a partnership that would eventually become the American Wind Power Center. Using 48 rare windmills acquired from Nebraska as a core, Wolfe and Harris continued to add more examples to the collection while looking for a permanent home for the icons of rural America. Lubbock donated the current site on the southern edge of Mackenzie Park to the museum six months after Wolfe passed away in 1996.
The windmill museum has doubled its floor space and the number of mills on display since it opened in June 1998. Inside the cavernous 28,000 square feet of exhibition space are fans ranging from 8 feet to more than 25 feet in diameter, one dating back to 1868. A deep trough down the center of the hall lets visitors stand at eye level with the wind-powered motors. On the walls hang all manner of parts, wheels, and tails from a once ubiquitous piece of machinery that is fading from the landscape.
On the 28-acre lawn surrounding the museum are more than two dozen windmills of various sizes and shapes that gently spin in the breeze across the Llano Estacado. Just like flowers in a field, there are no two windmills in the park exactly alike. On the tails that point the wheels into the wind are the names of companies that once dominated the field, like Manvel, American West, and Aermotor. The latter is one of the last three windmill manufacturers and is based in San Angelo.
The most unusual is a Twin Wheel machine with two 10-foot fans. Built in Kansas, the Twin Wheel is the largest of its type known to exist in working order. The double wheels were expected to work twice as hard as an ordinary single-wheel windmill.
The largest of the working windmills is the Southern Cross, near the entrance to the museum's park. The 25-foot-diameter wheel standing on a 55-foot, three-legged tower will soon be eclipsed by a 660-kilowatt wind turbine standing on a tower 16 stories tall that will supply electricity to the museum.
The American Wind Power Center has one of the largest collections of windmills in the world. The unique facility traces the evolution and shows the mechanical workings of the wind-driven pumps. The museum is east of I-27 at the corner of 19th Street and Canyon Lake Drive in Lubbock. You can see the windmills from the road, but the gates open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm. From May through August the museum is also open on Sundays, 2 to 5pm. Admission is free, but a $2-per-person donation is suggested. For more information, call 806/747-8734 or go to www.windmill.com.
715th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
