When I left the Cord museum in Auburn Indiana, it was to hunt down another sort of spinning circle. I had learned there was a windmill museum just a bit up the rural route in Kendallville, and I just had to check it out.
My mother found roadside attractions too low-brow for her tastes, not to mention a “waste of money”, so it was rare that we stopped at tourist traps on vacation when I was a kid. My father was somewhat more open-minded though, so I have him to thank for the discovery of such wonders as the Winchester Mystery House and The Potato Museum. Under these influences I developed a taste for quirky Americana. I mostly avoid the pure profit joints like Ripley’s Believe It or Not, the upside-down mansions, immobile Titanics and inevitable wax museums, but if it is truly quirky or even blatantly commercial in a homespun fashion, I’ll give it a try. And yes, I have enjoyed the “Free Ice Water” at Wall Drug, thank you very much.
As another testament to how much was going on in Northern Indiana a century ago, it seems there were once nearly a hundred manufacturers of windmills in these parts. Back before the government electrified rural America, if you need to water your trains, cows or family members and there was no river handy, you needed a windmill. In arid country like Texas this solution is especially effective, and the sole remaining US maker of windmill powered water pumps, Aermotor, is located there today. But in the late 1800’s Kendallville was home to Flint & Walling, a major player in the windmill industry. 150 years later, F&W is still in business in this small Indiana town, but now they sell water pumps sans the fan blades.
And now: on to the windmills!
There are three main parts to the museum: a large vintage barn for indoor exhibits, a hillside of windmills and a replica of the Robertson Post Mill from Colonial Williamsburg. The barn houses the indoor exhibits. They are working to remove most of the the oldest windmills from outside and move them into the barn, because the Indiana winters are tough on the wooden fan blades.
I learned a lot about windmills that I didn’t know from one of the volunteers who was on the grounds. It seems that they have a bit of a problem with labor to run the place – he was the youngest of the small number of volunteers on staff, and he was in his sixties. The fellow who was cutting the grass had to quit because his doctor said his heart could no longer take three hours on the tractor at the age of 85. I told him if I lived in the area I would volunteer. What a neat place!
The most prominent feature at the museum is a full sized working replica of the Roberston Mill built here by the Timber Framers Guild a few years ago. It’s sort of an anomaly in this collection, as its purpose to mill grain, not pump water. The design comes from coastal Europeans who had tons of wind to power these monsters. It’s essentially a small mill house built on a log post, and perfectly balanced so that a single man could aim it into the wind by pushing a large lever with a wagon wheel on the end. It’s just too bad there isn’t enough wind in Indiana to turn it so it can do the job it was built for, but still the construction itself is an impressive demonstration of old-world craftsmanship,
It was very peaceful just to sit on one of the many benches and watch the windmills turn lazily in the occasional breeze. All the windmills in the museum are mounted on much shorter towers than they would be if they were working to pump water, so you can see them much better here than in the wild. I arrived a half hour before closing time and had the place to myself for a while, but a bit later a tourist from Germany appeared after the office closed. The outdoor grounds are open at all times, so she came up and started asking me questions. Why does everyone assume I’m an employee wherever I go? Interesting thought for a later blog. Anyway, she was an interesting person and we chatted for some time, first about windmills and then about the German take on American politics.
A rain front was moving in though, so it was time to get back to the campsite and prepare to move the next day. In the next post: I finally make it to the state of Michigan for the first time.
Cool ????