Windmill vs. Wind Turbine

My interest in wind turbines and their impact on cultural landscapes began while I was working on a survey project in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. I am the proud owner of a trucker hat that reads "No Wind Turbines" that was given to me by a an angry West Virginian man. At the National Trust Conference in Pittsburgh, I attended a session on wind energy. A representative from Scenic America discussed how wind energy needs to be questioned and understood, so that communities can make educated decisions. For Professor Morton's International Preservation class, I wrote about wind turbines. So, as Ashley said, it appears that I am on a wind turbine crusade.

My main point has always been that there is a rather large difference between a windmill and a wind turbine. The difference can be seen in the picture above. A grouping of wind turbines isn't a "wind farm" but an industrial site. And, a single windmill doesn't fill the night sky with large red blinking lights.

However, I am perplexed about what to do with southeastern Colorado. Baca County (where I am doing most of my survey work) is an economically deprived area with a declining population and increasing amount of abandoned buildings. But, along with most of the plains area, it has plethora of land and wind. However, for a county with plenty of poetic "wide open spaces", is it worth it to place an industrial wind site in Baca?

Lessons Learned After a Month in Colorado

1. Tarantulas migrate south in the end of October in southeastern Colorado. They travel across the road one at a time so that you have to be careful not to hit them.
2. Over 100,000 people can fit into Civic Center Park in the middle of Denver to see, now President-Elect, Obama speak.
3. It is not uncommon to see a salad bar on a covered wagon in a restaurant. (The bathroom's also say "Cowgirls" and "Cowboys".)
4. There are lots of subtle differences in Quonset huts. They can even be used as movie theatres.
5. Ranchers are willing to make roads with their pickup trucks. They also look at you funny when you put a seatbelt on.
6. Although the Coors Brewery has its home in Colorado, nobody really like Coors beer.
7. Directions are given in N, S, E, and W instead of left and right. People orientate themselves by the mountains in the west and rely on the grid patterned streets.
8. There are places in the world where you can spin around and around and not see anything.
9. Double laid stone is simply beautiful.
10. It is always an option to order your food "smothered" in green chile.
11. Western preservationists have a broader approach to what needs to be saved, including modern linear landscapes.

The Ranchers and The Military Can't Be Friends

For those of you who don't know, I am currently working for Colorado Preservation Inc. as a survey intern. I am working on two survey projects in southeast Colorado. One is in Baca County surveying rural resources. It is an entire county with no stoplights, 7 restaurants and 2 drive through liquor stores. My fellow intern and I are driving all of the dirt roads in the county and finding a lot of abandoned buildings, quanset huts and dugouts.

Today, I worked on the other survey project in Las Animas County. This is the Ranching Survey that is being done is response to the proposed Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site expansion. For more information from the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition go to www.pinoncanyon.com. The ranchers are working hard to save their land and their way of life.

This morning we met Jerry the rancher at an old store called "Walt's Corner". He led Abbey, my boss, Richard, an archaeologist, and me to several historic homesteads on his ranch. We also went to a whiskey still that dates from prohibition. I crawled into the space between the cliff and the stone wall that was built to hide the still. We also found lots of stone foundations, vigas, dugouts and corrals. I learned a lot listening to Richard talk about the pieces of worked glass, iron and ceramics that he found on the surface.

After a rapid lunch, we traveled to John's ranch where we found more homesteads and a potential community along the Old Trinidad Road. John took us to Miner's Peak where we climbed a "lava dome". At the top of the besalt mound we found multiple prehistoric petroglyphs in the rock face and a beautiful view.

Back in Trinidad this evening, Abbey and I went to Fort Carson's (the fort that sends troops to the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site) presentation/public comment of their 900 page Environmental Impact Statement. However, this EIS statement isn't about the expansion of the Pinon Canyon Site but about constructing buildings to put more troops on the site. Obviously, the ranchers see this as a way to induce the expansion of the site. Once they agree to put more people on the site then they will "need" to have more land. There were a lot of passionate, angry people in cowboy hats and a lot of emotionally empty people with fancy nametags. So, eventhough the ranchers are mostly pro-military and pro-America they can't be friends with people that are lying to them and trying to overtake their way of life.

Well, tomorrow, we are back at John's ranch to see more homesteads and have more adventures...