Lubbock museum sharing history of windmills in the region

LUBBOCK, Texas (KFDA) - The groundwork for the American Windmill Museum in Lubbock came long before it was established in the 90s.

Jason Miller, director’s assistant, says Wolfe was a faculty member at Texas Tech and was involved in the Home Ec program.

“In utilizing information, she would go out and take pictures of homesteads. In doing so, she would recognize windmills in the background,” said Miller. “So she started to shift focus and started to focus on the windmill.”

Miller says Wolfe would travel a lot and speak with farmers and ranchers who had windmills.

Around 1992, she met with the first director out here, Coy Harris.

“They got into cahoots together and came up with the American Wind Power Center. That’s what it was originally called. Now it’s the American Windmill Museum,” said Miller.

In 1996, the two got the museum granted property in McKenzie State Park. Miller says the City of Lubbock gave them the land as a home for the windmills.

“Sadly, Billie passed away in 1997, but she had already got the ball rolling with the windmills,” said Miller.

In 1997, the Scarborough-Linebery Foundation out of Midland got a grant to the museum. That grant was used to help get the building up and running.

“It goes back to bringing in new people, and the more that new from Lubbock or Post, Plainview, Amarillo — all around the surrounding counties, there’s windmills everywhere,” said Miller. “They drive past four, five, six, seven of them as they’re trying to come and check out another 235 that we have out here.”

The American Windmill Museum is located at 1701 Canyon Lake Dr.