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Everything Old is New Again:
Windmills make a Y2K comeback
By Leslie C. McDaniel
Photos by G. Wayne Walker Jr.
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?'"
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."