They are popping up like slender, mutated mushrooms after spring rain. Larger than most villians in those cheap movies of the 1950’s. You remember them – scary enough to have your date shiver and jump into your embrace in the dark.
These are science. Not ficition. A new twist on an old concept becoming prominate across Illinois. A summer or two ago I departed the Interstate and went on state, county, and then local gravel roads to get up close.
A new group decorates the landscape along my route. They appear tall and slender. Up close they are thick, the slender is only in proportion to height.
More are under construction. I catch up to pilot vechiles with banners of “Wide Load”. One by one the traffic slips into the left lane, approaches with concentration to the task at hand, and passes a large flatbed with his cylindrical load. Another portion of windmill stem moves across the prairie.
Three large fan blades somersault in the constant breeze, moving the apparatus to make electricity to power a computer and all the other items that contribute to the standard of living Americans aspire to.
This is a distant cousin of the windmill I grew up around. On a 40 foot steel frame that historic one pumped water for a herd of animals and a houseful of humans.
