Monitor Vaneless Windmill at Homestead NM

Monitor Vaneless Model L windmill head

NPS Photo

This windmill is a 10-foot Model L Monitor Vaneless windmill. This particular windmill has been part of Homestead National Historical Park's museum collection since 1962. It was previously displayed at the old visitor center (now the Education Center). The head of the windmill is original, but the tower was constructed in 2007 to be displayed in the museum at the Heritage Center. This windmill was donated by John Whittler of DeWitt, Nebraska.

The Monitor Vaneless was sold by the Baker Manufacturing Company of Evansville, Wisconsin. It was named “Monitor” for the famous Civil War ironclad ship the USS Monitor. The company produced the first Monitor Vaneless in 1875 and by 1879 was producing up to 70 windmills per month.

The first Monitor Vaneless windmills did not have a counterweight. In 1892, a spherical balance weight was added. Following this improvement, the windmill was produced with few design changes for the next 20 years. The footballshaped counterweight like the one on this windmill was introduced in 1918. John S. Baker, son of the company’s founder Allen S. Baker, patented the Monitor Vaneless design on January 1, 1918— exactly 55 years after the Homestead Act became effective and necessitated mass production of windmills in the United States.

The Model L and Model M Monitors are easily identified by their distinctively-shaped counterweights, rocker arm ironwork, and two large coiled governor springs at the wheel hub. Though the Baker Manufacturing Company remains in existence, the last wooden Monitor Vaneless windmills were produced in the early 1940s.

Importance of Windmills to Homesteaders

Water was a critical resource to homesteaders. They needed it to cook, bathe, drink, water crops and animals, wash clothes, and more. In the 30 homesteading states, however, many did not have creeks or rivers flowing through their homesteads.

Acquiring water became an important task. Windmills made this job much easier by taking advantage of the gusting winds so common on the Great Plains. Windmills were often among homesteaders’ most prized possessions and are prominent in many photographs of homesteading families, including the one below. Today, windmills remain a common sight in many parts of the Plains.

Many who claimed land under the Homestead Act settled in harsh environments where they had to adapt and innovate in order to survive. Homesteader ingenuity was responsible for many new inventions or improvements on older ideas. The latter was the case with windmills on the Great Plains.

Two men on their homestead in front of a windmill

History Nebraska, Solomon Butcher Collection