WEBVTT - How Windmills Won The West

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<v Speaker 1>This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories,

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<v Speaker 1>and we tell stories about everything here on this show.

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<v Speaker 1>And now it's time for a look back to a

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<v Speaker 1>device that helped win the West. He used Jesse with

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<v Speaker 1>the story of Windmill.

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<v Speaker 2>You can drive just about anywhere in America and find

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<v Speaker 2>windmills if you're looking for the old metal ones you

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<v Speaker 2>see in paintings of Texas to the Midwest, from the

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<v Speaker 2>novelty lawn ornament variety for under one hundred bucks to

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<v Speaker 2>the towering vintage water pumps accenting skylines next to barns

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<v Speaker 2>or pastures and cornfields, fully restored or in beautiful decay,

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<v Speaker 2>working or not, these giant relics of Americana aren't just

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<v Speaker 2>for decoration, and the West couldn't have been won without them.

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<v Speaker 2>Out of the mid eighteen fifties, salesman John Burnham and

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<v Speaker 2>machinist Daniel Halliday came up with the basic design that

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<v Speaker 2>we would recognize today with the Holiday Windmill Company. It

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<v Speaker 2>was relatively lightweight, nimble, It could swivel so it was

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<v Speaker 2>always facing the wind, an angle its blades to just

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<v Speaker 2>for speed to avoid damage and strong winds. Automatically, families

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<v Speaker 2>and farms were able to pump water and store it

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<v Speaker 2>in tanks anytime the wind was blowing.

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<v Speaker 3>Right around the turn of the century. Between the eighteen

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<v Speaker 3>hundreds and the nineteen hundreds, there was over six hundred

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<v Speaker 3>windmill companies in the United States.

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<v Speaker 2>Tanya Meadow is with the American Windmill Museum in Lubbock, Texas.

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<v Speaker 3>The American Windmill Museum was started in nineteen ninety three

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<v Speaker 3>by a lady who was a teacher at Texas Tech

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<v Speaker 3>University and mister Kroy Harris, who is still our executive director.

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<v Speaker 3>This building houses over one hundred and ten windmills. We've

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<v Speaker 3>got windmills in here from as big as six foot wide,

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<v Speaker 3>which is the diameter of the wheel. How we measure

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<v Speaker 3>a windmill up to twenty five feet wide in diameter.

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<v Speaker 3>The old steam engines could only go fifteen to thirty

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<v Speaker 3>miles before they had to stop for water, depending on

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<v Speaker 3>the terrain. You look at our little towns out here

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<v Speaker 3>in West Texas, fifteen to thirty miles down the road,

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<v Speaker 3>there's a little town probably sprung up there because that's

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<v Speaker 3>where the railroad had to stop in order for them

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<v Speaker 3>to be able to get water for the steam engine.

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<v Speaker 3>So there was a major relationship between the railroads and

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<v Speaker 3>the windmills.

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<v Speaker 2>The windmill pumped the water to power the steam engines

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<v Speaker 2>on the trains of the first transcontinental railroad out west.

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<v Speaker 2>There's only one company that stood the test of time

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<v Speaker 2>and continues to build them right here in the good

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<v Speaker 2>old USA.

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<v Speaker 3>And that would be the Air Motor Company. The Air

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<v Speaker 3>Motor Company started off in Chicago, Illinois, laid eighteen hundreds

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<v Speaker 3>and then in the nineteen fifties they were purchased by

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<v Speaker 3>a Texan and the plant was moved to San Angelo, Texas,

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<v Speaker 3>where it still is today. And they still make windmills today.

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<v Speaker 3>Your larger ranches still use windmills. It's so much easier

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<v Speaker 3>to put up a windmill for under twenty thousand dollars

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<v Speaker 3>than it is to try to run twenty miles of

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<v Speaker 3>electrical line in order to be able to pump water

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<v Speaker 3>for your large ranches. And the Four Sixes Ranches a

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<v Speaker 3>big one, they actually have a full time windmiller. One

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<v Speaker 3>of the reasons that the air Motor business is still

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<v Speaker 3>in business today is they were always thinking what can

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<v Speaker 3>we do to make life easier? What can we do

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<v Speaker 3>to make life better? They were one of the first

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<v Speaker 3>ones to create what was called the power mill, and

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<v Speaker 3>the power mill would have been a different gearing system

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<v Speaker 3>on a building outside the barn or one of your

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<v Speaker 3>other outbuildings, and inside underneath there would be a grinder

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<v Speaker 3>so that they could grind their corn and their wheats

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<v Speaker 3>in order to be able to have their flowers in

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<v Speaker 3>order to do their breads and grains. They also were

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<v Speaker 3>one of the first ones to enclose the gearbox. It

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<v Speaker 3>has an oil reservoir underneath it and a big bonnet

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<v Speaker 3>on top of it. And they said that you only

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<v Speaker 3>had to oil your windmill once a year. Now that's

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<v Speaker 3>a major time saving as opposed to having climb up

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<v Speaker 3>there three or four times a day and put oil

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<v Speaker 3>on the gears.

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<v Speaker 2>Many of the windmills that dotted the path out west

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<v Speaker 2>were rendered obsolete by the nineteen thirties as electric and

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<v Speaker 2>diesel powered trains took over the railways. Once electric pumps

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<v Speaker 2>became popular, windmills on farms went neglected and began to

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<v Speaker 2>break down over time without proper maintenance. But some people

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<v Speaker 2>like to get these old wind pumps working again, like

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<v Speaker 2>Rick Ritter Saint Jacob, Illinois. He restored his flint and

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<v Speaker 2>whaling brand windmill that's been standing on the family farm

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<v Speaker 2>as long as he can remember.

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<v Speaker 4>I just thought it was so cool. I never got

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<v Speaker 4>to see it run till I was forty something when

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<v Speaker 4>I fixed it. It always stood out here on the

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<v Speaker 4>farm and never got used. It had weeds, vines, morning

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<v Speaker 4>glories climbed all the way up to the top.

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<v Speaker 5>Probably nineteen ninety. I started cutting vines at the bottom,

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<v Speaker 5>and eventually, after all everything died on it, I was

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<v Speaker 5>able to pull it all off, all the vines that

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<v Speaker 5>were grown around it. I had an old guy tell me, said,

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<v Speaker 5>you need to get those vines off there, because what

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<v Speaker 5>will happen during a heavy windstorm with vines and stuff

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<v Speaker 5>on there blocking it.

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<v Speaker 4>The wind will take the whole thing to the ground.

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<v Speaker 4>So he said, basically, even need to get the vines

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<v Speaker 4>off of it, or else you're going to be out

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<v Speaker 4>there with a cutting torch cutting it up. And I

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<v Speaker 4>just a whole I just didn't want to lose it.

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<v Speaker 4>I thought it was just a neat piece of history

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<v Speaker 4>to have standing here, So I cut the vines, pulled

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<v Speaker 4>it off. Took me years to get that done until

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<v Speaker 4>we got it all taken down, which I had a

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<v Speaker 4>cherry picker come in and take it down, and it

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<v Speaker 4>stayed on the ground for a year while everything got

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<v Speaker 4>repainted and refinished on it. I think they bought it used.

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<v Speaker 4>Nineteen twenty six is the year on this one. It's

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<v Speaker 4>been standing here since I was a kid. I never

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<v Speaker 4>got to see it.

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<v Speaker 5>Run at all till I was still.

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<v Speaker 4>Actually I restored it. I must have shot pickup truck

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<v Speaker 4>load of twenty two caliber bullets out here and whatever,

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<v Speaker 4>And for some good reason, I just never shot holes

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<v Speaker 4>in the windmill. Most windmills you see, if they aren't

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<v Speaker 4>destroyed from wind damage or whatever, somebody's blowed holes in them,

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<v Speaker 4>and especially in that crown that's on top of here.

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<v Speaker 4>And once you blow holes in that from the bottom

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<v Speaker 4>up especially, water gets in the top, gets into the

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<v Speaker 4>gears and bearings, rusts, its solid, and it's pretty well junked.

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<v Speaker 4>That's the way a lot of these got ruined was

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<v Speaker 4>bullet holes. Basically. The other way is you would run

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<v Speaker 4>them completely out of oil and let them spin, because

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<v Speaker 4>what will happen. You'll get a big windstorm come up,

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<v Speaker 4>it'll spin all the bearings in narrowill get really hot,

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<v Speaker 4>and all of a sudden it will lock up in

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<v Speaker 4>the inertia of that spinning windmill, will wide this thing

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<v Speaker 4>up like a ball. Put it on the ground once again.

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<v Speaker 4>A torch comes out and you're gonna end up hauling

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<v Speaker 4>it away a scrap iron. So I always liked it

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<v Speaker 4>standing here and just didn't shoot at it. And when

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<v Speaker 4>the weeds grew up, I pulled the weeds off of it,

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<v Speaker 4>and then eventually I fix it.

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<v Speaker 1>And great job as always to Jesse and my goodness.

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<v Speaker 1>There's an American Windmill Museum in Lubbock, Texas. And a

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<v Speaker 1>special thanks if you're ever driving through, stop eye the

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<v Speaker 1>windmill story an important part of American history. Here on

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<v Speaker 1>Our American Story, this is Lee Habib, host of Our

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<v Speaker 1>American Stories, the show where America is the star and

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<v Speaker 1>the American people, and we do it all from the

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<v Speaker 1>heart of the South Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't

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<v Speaker 1>do this show without you. Our shows will always be

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