LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Once windmills, like the one that stands as a beacon at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park, were a fixture on farms all across the land.
Windmills, or windpumps as they are also called, are used to pump water.
Anderson Marsh's windmill is dated at around 1910. There are plans to reconstruct it, as it no longer works.
It pumped water through its mighty wind power until electricity arrived in the area in 1924.
It is difficult to realize how hard life was during the times before utility companies came to Lake County.
Anderson Marsh's ranch house is one of the oldest settler homes in Lake County, with its earlier section built before the Civil War. A cistern was once used to store water at the house.
The ranch house was home to two historic families, the Grigsbys and the Andersons.
The Grigsbys built their home between 1855 and 1860, while the Andersons arrived at the ranch, via the Cape Horn route, in 1886.
Although the ranch house is not open at this time, Anderson Marsh State Historic Park is open to the public for hiking its lovely trails.
Windmills have been utilized around the world since the ninth century, both for draining wetlands and pumping water for consumption.
It is still common to see the beautiful wooden windmills at use in Holland.
In the United States windmills were common all across the Great Plains where they pumped water for livestock.
In our large state of California, windmills were useful – and still are today for home water systems, along with shallow, hand-constructed wells.
Redwood water towers made for great water storage and could gravity-feed water lines.
At around the 1930s steel blades and towers took the place of wooden water works, when there were approximately 600,000 windmills in use.
Windmills are still manufactured today and used worldwide, and can pump 1,600 gallons of water each hour.
They are low-maintenance, only requiring a strong wind to turn the crank of its piston pump and replacing the oil in its gear box once a year.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.