It has long been a wish to be able to have a windmill on Wagner Farm. If you visualize a old time farm you think of a farmhouse, barn and windmill. A windmill was a revolutionary machine because it could bring water to a piece of land that didn't have a pond, creek or river. Today something that simple sounds almost silly but at the time water access was vital especially for any farm that had livestock. With the investment of $28 from the Sears catalogue (in 1897) you could have a windmill sent to your farm. In 1920 alone 75,736 windmills were sold in the States. Most of these mills were made right here in Chicago. The most common of the manufacturers was the Aermotor Company. What set them apart in the field was their machine was made of all metal parts so that it could be both lighter and stronger than their competitors. The most popular of the Aermotor offerings was the 702 which was made from the late 1920's to today (although the company is no longer owned by Aermotor). The version that we put up is a somewhat rarer 602 which was only made from the late teens until the introduction of the 702. For the time period of the farm we thought that this would be a better representation of the technology that was available to the farmers.
The one thing that hasn't changed from the old days to the present is the challenge of standing the windmill. I bet they were just as nervous as we were today. They likely called all their neighbors over to help out just like we did too. So with a group of willing workers we tied off one end of the mill to a tractor and then started raising the tower with boards so as not to buckle the metal frame. With a mighty heave we got the tower in the air. The next step is to mount the fan and we will be able to then pump water!
