Image Description
Here is another icon of the old west—a wooden windmill. I
took this photo in 1975 just outside my hometown in the desolate Texas
panhandle. Even then, most windmills were metal, and by now
all have been replaced by electric pumps. But I can still hear
the rhythmic clicking of the sucker rod going up and down and the whirr
of the blades in the relentless high-plains wind.
The vast plains stretching from Texas to Canada are largely
without surface water or dependable rainfall. Windmills were
a key technology enabling the settlement (for better or worse) of this
area in the late 1800s. I especially like the functionality
of the construction: the crossed boards on three sides give
strength, and the horizontal boards on the fourth side provide a service
ladder to the top.
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