Windmill, Water Tank, Cooler House

Working together: the windmill, the water tank and the cooler house

Quick Facts

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

Windmill

The Cyclone windmill situated above the well pumped the cold well water into the adjoining storage tank. Its many blades allowed for the windmill to hold up to the pressure of strong winds and still generate enough torque to pump water from the well during periods of low winds. The well water then flowed by gravity through a pipe to the wooden water trough inside the cooler house. Wind was an important resource that the settlers harnessed. Cooperation with nature was an integral part of life.

Water Tank

The water tank is an essential part of the pumping process. It stores water above the height of where it will be used, and then is gravity-fed into water troughs and buildings. No electric or mechanical energy source is required for this part of the process.

Cooler House

The original cooler house was built in the 1880s by N.T. Stubbs, a cousin by marriage to President Lyndon B. Johnson. The cooler house provided cold storage for perishable food and dairy products. It was constructed out of native limestone with walls 18 inches thick. Inside, shelves were built along the thick stone walls for storage of crocks filled with wild dewberries, hog plums, and garden vegetables such as onions, peas, beans, and tomatoes. Cans of milk and churns filled with cream for making butter were kept cool in the wooden water trough. Eggs, preserved in salt, and cabbage, stored in barrels for making sauerkraut, were kept on the cool, moist sand floor, while potatoes and other root vegetables were stored in a large box, layered with sand to keep them dry.