Windmills: surviving on the Plains
By DARLA BRACKEN
In 1897 “Beyond [frontier Amarillo] in every direction, burgeoning across the land as far as eye could reach to where the greenery of the Plains met the translucent sky on the dim perimeter in the interminable distance, were the great pioneer ranches, still intact in domain and dominate in the life and economy of the Panhandle of Texas. These were princely in extent, but unbelievably stark and simple in their camps and headquarters, in what is now loftily known as the standard of living. Their ways and methods were unchanged from those of the open range, except here and there a wooden-wheeled windmill turned its compassionate face into the persistent wind and lifted welcome water to an always thirsty land.” J. Evetts Haley “The Flamboyant Judge: the story of Amarillo and the development of the great ranches of the Texas Panhandle”, 1972. “These were new, these and the gleaming strands of barbed wire that marked the boundaries of those empires of grass and beef...”
It was the windmill that allowed both man and beast to survive and settle the high Plains of Texas with ranchers, farmers and settlers. The XIT Ranch had 325 windmills over its vast 3 million acres and a special full time crew to take care of them. There were many different types and designs and hundreds of companies manufacturing them between the 1880s and into the 1920s and 1930s.
You can still purchase a new windmill today. Aeromotor, in business since 1888, sells windmills in 6,8,10,12,14, and 16 feet wheel diameter models. These are huge–if you have seen the wheels in the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon or the windmills at the American Windmill Center in Lubbock. A 16 feet diameter model costs $12,270 and carries a 7-year warranty. This includes the vane assembly, the ½ inch pipe/base assembly, the tail assembly, the wheel assembly and the crated motor–the most expensive part at $5,683. The wheel, itself, costs $3,739 and this is just the pumping apparatus–the drilling is extra. Parts of the windmill include the tower, the well-casing and sucker rods, the wheel, the van, the gear driven motor and the storage tank.
In early day Friona about 1905, “Uncle” Andy Wentworth established a two mill water supply system on his property at 507 Prospect, Block 72 Original Town and on Main Block 62 Original Town just south of where Plains Hardware used to be. There were storage tanks of 300 gallons each at each mill. He used a turning plow to dig the ditch to bury the pipeline. To the early Friona residents who had relocated from other more developed areas, this must have seemed a primitive, but welcome sight. Otherwise, they would each have had to have their own windmill and storage system. Until the city water supply was established in 1929, they used the Wentworth system or their own mill. By 1929, the City of Friona had one well, 5 fire hydrants, and 14 blocks of water main. They had to drill 141 feet to water. By 1981, just over 50 years later, the city had 7 producing wells, 4 storage tanks or 800,000 gallons capacity, 26 miles of water main and 91 fire hydrants. They drilled 198 feet to water. Population was 2,124. Today in 2006, 100 years later the city has 16 wells, a storage capacity of one million gallons in the north well alone, miles of water main and fire hydrants. The City is currently exploring a new south field under a grant proposal due to the high cost of drilling a new well. Drilling depth to water is now an average of feet.
Advances in windmill design and operation continued and eventually included such items as: tilting tower design, steel wheels, galvanized metal, all metal systems, double-geared open backed, closed gearbox design, self-oiling, pull string oilers, and oil reservoirs. There were many different wheel designs including one vaneless that opened and closed with the wind. All have their own particular beauty especially against a West Texas sunset. And today, 100 years later, windmills are still a valuable, necessary part of our landscape to which we all humbly owe our very existence here. Wind turbines of today use our abundant wind energy resource to produce 21st century electricity–our future survival may be dependent on that wind machine as well.
Ode to the Windmill by John Knox