Mid-America Windmill Museum

 Special Attractions
    Baker Hall Recption Center     Power Mill Building     Robertson Post Windmill     Samson (O'Connor) Windmill

 Newsletter
    Windmill Clipper

 

Museum Open
April – November

 

Hours

 Tues. – Fri. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
 Sat. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
 Sun. 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

 

Admission

 Adults $4.00
 Seniors 55+ $3.50
 Student/Child $1.50
 Children under 6 Free


Address

 732 S. Allen Chapel Road
 Kendallville, IN 46755
 260-347-2334


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Robertson Post Windmill


This was one of the most daunting and ambitious projects the Mid-America Windmill Museum has undertaken. In 1999 the museum began the process of constructing a replica of the first windmill built in America—the Robertson Post Windmill in Williamsburg, Virginia. The layout is based on plans of a 17th century post windmill preserved in Cambridgeshire, England and Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Museum directors worked with Ford Motor Company who owns the original construction plans and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to obtain a copy of the plans and build the replica.

Dekko Foundation in Kendallville was instrumental in providing financial support for the project. Dreaming Creek Timber Frame Homes of Virginia helped acquire and prepare the timber, while members of the Timber Framers Guild used their skills and expertise to transform massive white oak timbers into an impressive tourist attraction for the museum.

During the summer of 1999, preparation was begun on the site of the Robertson Post. Four concrete piers were formed and poured. Later a brick veneer was applied to look like the original. The great post and the rest of the timber for the mill was trucked from Virginia to Kendallville and stored in the Restoration Barn for the winter.

May 22, 2000 brought 29 members of the Timbers Framers Guild to the Mid-America Windmill Museum. During the next two-week period, those industrious craftsmen and women used traditional mortise and tenon building methods to transform the massive white oak timbers into the Robertson Post Windmill. Once the frame was built, many other museum volunteers worked to side, roof, and finish the inside of the windmill.

The steps up to the entrance of the building are eleven feet above ground level. They can be raised by hand by means of a lever when the mill requires turning to take advantage of the prevailing wind direction. The miller would push on the large timber supporting the large wagon wheel to position the mill into the wind so the milling process could begin. The mill is more than thirty feet from ground level to the peak of the roof. Protruding through the peak section is the massive horizontal wind shaft that turns the wind energy into mechanical power.

Resting on the piers are timbers that structurally support the entire weight of the mill. The timbers, at a 45-degree angle to the base, are the pieces that support the great post. The great post was cut from one log that measured 48” at the butt end and 40” at the top and was more than 25’ long. The vertical timber is the great post and weighs almost 5,000 pounds and stands sixteen feet above the horizontal timber base. The building turns on the support provided by the great post. Altogether the Robertson Post mill contains more than 35 tons of white oak.

The sails take the wind energy to turn the wind shaft and are fifty-one feet from tip to tip. To catch as much wind as possible, the sails would be covered with a canvas fabric but now they are currently in storage.

Inside the building, visitors are able to see the mechanical portion of the huge grist mill. The wind shaft drives the brake wheel. The hickory gear teeth transform the horizontal wind shaft power to the round wallower that produces the rotation of the grinding stones by way of the vertical stone shaft. A set of stairs goes to the second floor where the wind shaft and the brake wheel are located. On the second floor, is the vertical stone shaft in position as it turns the grinding stones.