Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

I would dare to say that mill and the flying Dutchman are extremely rare!!!

windybob wrote: Fri May 02, 2025 10:12 am Where was that located?

Found hiding in a big cottonwood tree in southern MN. We displayed at the 2015 trade fair just as it was found. Sadly, it's still not restored yet- need to stop restoring mills for others and take time to design the wheel for it since no patterns came with it.

Windcatcher530 Dan wrote: Fri May 02, 2025 10:55 am I would dare to say that mill and the flying Dutchman are extremely rare!!!

Yes, there could be more out there somewhere but this is the only one we are aware of. There are 2 or 3 Dutchmans in collections that I know of. They used most all of the same castings.

Thank you. You never know what's around the next corner. A good time to look is winter, and make notes. Many get buried in the foliage.

Yep Judd you and your brother both definitely need to get some of your mills restored. I know TWO right off the top of my head that are pretty darn RARE.

Jud , thanks for sharing the Trade Fair photo .

Hi Bob -
If you're asking about the Franken-Wonder, it was a few miles northeast of Nunn CO. Let me know if you want more precise directions.

mtblah wrote: Fri May 02, 2025 5:28 pm Jud , thanks for sharing the Trade Fair photo .

you're welcome, Mike

Windcatcher530 Dan wrote: Fri May 02, 2025 1:30 pm Yep Judd you and your brother both definitely need to get some of your mills restored. I know TWO right off the top of my head that are pretty darn RARE.

For sure, we've only got about 10% restored, we gotta pick up the pace!

windybob wrote: Fri May 02, 2025 12:53 pm Thank you. You never know what's around the next corner. A good time to look is winter, and make notes. Many get buried in the foliage.

Fully agree. Years back we would occasionally drive backroads all day in the fall or winter with the sole purpose of finding odd mills. The best scenario was when there was enough snow to completely cover the fields so the mills would stand out more. Binoculars and GPS connected to the laptop were essential tools for us to mark location and what roads we drove so we could work an area that was fruitful. We noted that Elgins especially frequently could be found in clusters. There were 4 rare vaneless Elgins (2 were 12 footers) within a few miles of the Terrible Swede. We worked that area very hard but this one I didn't find until filling in some gaps on the map about 15 years later.

Sad thing is some of those maps are hard to access now since that software is so old but my mental memory is still good enough to get me close to the rarest ones.

babraid wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 6:47 pm Hi Bob -
If you're asking about the Franken-Wonder, it was a few miles northeast of Nunn CO. Let me know if you want more precise directions.

Its an interesting farmered mill and sorry for hijacking your thread! I suspect you may be right about the challenge steel side vane.

I was just curious, not really wanting to go there. But thanks.

Interestingly there was a TipTop about a mile away, so maybe that also demonstrates the Elgin-clustering hypothesis. The owner was really nice and told all about his grandfather putting it up.