All About Windmills - Hill County Northbound Safety Rest Area - Abbott, TX - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

The background features the windmill's rotor and tail against a blue sky. Insets captioned as "Heron of Alexandria (AD 10-70), "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza by Honore Daumier", and "Early homestead Hillsboro, Texas" accompany the text, which reads:

The first known windmill was built by the ancient Alexandrian architect Heron, designed for powering a pipe organ. Of course the most famous windmills in literature were those encountered by the eccentric Spanish knight Don Quixote. Cervantes described the scene: "Just as they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from the plain. Do you see over yonder friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants. I intend to do battle with them and slay them all." Such a battle could have easily escalated because it's estimated there were 10,000 such hulking giants in the Netherlands at the time. The windmill was brought to America by the English to Jamestown and by the Dutch to settlements in New York. But where the windmill's use was most significant was for pumping water in the arid regions of the Southwest, especially in Texas. Perhaps the most famous windmill was the Aermotor which dominated and still can be seen spinning on the Hill County skyline. The Aermotor, developed in 1888, is still being sold today. In its first year, it sold only 45 units. Four years later, they sold 20,000 units and were the dominant windmill company in the world. To date, they have sold 60,000 units. In rural Texas, there was a time when farmers had to locate on rivers or streams to possess water for livestock, irrigation and for family use. But the windmill made it possible for a farmer to bring the water source to the farm. The windmill not only made it easier for pioneers to settle the state, but by providing water for the steam locomotive it allowed the railroads to expand across the state.

Group that erected the marker: Hill County URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Hill County Northbound Safety Rest Area Just north of Milepost 262 Abbott, TX USA 76621

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