Everything Old is New Again:
March 1999
Leslie C. McDaniel
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Everybody loves a windmill
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Photos by G. Wayne Walker Jr.
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In the antiques business, nostalgia sells. But a once-in-a-lifetime calendar change may top even the nostalgia factor in at least one collectible category. The fast-approaching millenium is generating business for the long sleepy windmill industry as surely as the windmill generates power.
'This has been the biggest year for windmill sales in the last 25 to 30 years,' says Randy Stubbs, owner of Big Country Windmills, based in Maxwell, Neb. 'Water-pumping windmill sales have been steadily declining since World War II, but from all indications, this will be the first year of a rise in sales. With this Y2K scare, there's a lot of people out there saying 'Why not pump our own water?''
Those who expect computer glitches to disrupt basic services when the year 2000 arrives are eagerly exploring alternative sources of energy, Randy says.
Recalling pastoral scenes of an earlier era, many see the windmill as the solution. But it's not quite that simple.
'I wish we were in the business of selling wind-powered generators,' he says. 'That's what a lot of these people really want. A lot of people don't understand that there's a distinct difference: the windmill works on an up-and-down stroke that pumps water, while a wind generator works more like an automotive generator.'
Randy, who's been in the windmill business for 10 years, readily admits that his interest in windmills has become all consuming.
'I grew up in the antiques business,' he says. 'In my twenties, I specialized in horsedrawn equipment, and I enjoyed that. But a friend of mine sold windmills, and I got hooked on that. In the last 10 years, it's become more and more a main part of our business. In the last five years, it's become an obsession.'
Randy specializes in obsolete windmills: Challenge, Dempster, Fairbury, Monitor, Flint & Walling, Samson/Stover and Woodmanse. He also works on Aermotor windmills, which are still in production.
'At the turn of the century, there were probably 100 different windmill manufacturers,' he says. 'Most went under by World War II. But there's still a lot of old windmills out there in use, and people need parts for them.'
Add in the nostalgia factor - 'People bring us an old picture of their grandparents' farmstead, and say 'We want a windmill just like that one',' Randy says - and all of a sudden, you're talking about a viable business.
Up to a year ago, as much as half of his business came from customers who wanted windmills for aesthetic purposes alone: yard art, if you will. In the past year, though, that number has dropped to 25 percent.
'There's just so many people now who want to pump water with their windmill,' he said. 'A lot of times, people didn't care if their windmill would pump water, but 99 percent of them could.'