Chugwaters Lasting Legacy

This windmill was funded and erected as a lasting legacy for Wyoming's Centennial Celebration (1900-1990) by the Chugwater Historical Unity Group (CHUG), Chugwater Economic Development (Ched), the town of Chugwater and the Aid of a grant from the Wyoming Centennial Commission.)

The Homesteaders of the early 1900's saw this area from an open-range livestock area to a combination farming/ranching community. One of the first requirements of the new settlers was water. The Windmill proved to be the most practical of supplying water to for domestic and livestock use. Soon every building site had a windmill of some type standing tall above the other buildings. Many of these mills were of the wooden-wheel vaneless variety.

Of this type mill, the most popular in this area was Dempster, manufactured in Beatrice Nebraska from 1900 to mid 1920's. It is easily identified by the cast-iron horse on the tail.The horse along with the weight box counter balanced the weight of the wheel.

The vaneless mills were unique in that the tail pointed into the wind and the wheel section opened and closed maintaining a constant pumping speed according to the velocity of the wind. There were no gears of any kind on these mills. Pumping action was by direct stroke pitmon stick.