| Comstock man erects windmills for the world's largest collection Henry Nuxoll has a vision. He has a map in his mind where each windmill model will be placed-row by row. Dempsters at the old house he is renovating for a bed and breakfast and restaurant, dubbed Dempster House. hummer Hill. Eclipse Loop. Aermotor Lane. Ten Fairburys here with a couple Air Kings or Elis thrown in. Two or three Currys there. And a few Challenges from Batavia, Ill. "When I can't sleep or get up early, I start walking in the pasture," he said. Nuxoll wants Second Wind Ranch north of Comstock to become the world's largest standing windmill collection. And with every windmill that he erects, he is slowly making it happen. Nuxoll, a B&H Farm Equipment sales representative, has been setting up restored windmills in a 40-acre pasture east of his ranch with Sargent resident Bill Chalupa's help. So far, 25 stand tall in the pasture that overlooks a lush green valley. He developed the idea for the windmill ranch while hanging Christmas lights in the shape of a star on top of a basket-style windmill with no wheel two years ago. "I decided to fix the tower," he said. "I figured that I might as well as put a windmill up there instead of a star." The ranch then took on a life of its own. Nuxoll Converted an old hog barn into a windmill factory where Chalupa works at restoring the towers, frames and wheels of windmills. "Sometimes, it takes (parts of) two to three windmills to make one," Nuxoll said. Main frames and towers legs are scattered around the factory. Wheels, or fans, made of wood or steel lean against fences and farm buildings. Nuxoll scours the countryside hunting for windmill parts and deals with a lot of collectors. Every farm used to have a windmill, he said. It was used to pump water, drive electrical generators for lighting and charge storage batteries on farms. "The easiest place to find one is from a farmer who never throws anything away from the last 50 to 100 years," he said. "Sometimes you find a good one 1,000 miles away." "Or sometimes right across the road,"Chalupa chimed in. More than 700 manufacturers produced windmills 75 to 100 years ago, Nuxoll said. Aermotor windmills feature six-feet tall to 20-feet tall towers. Pipe Raymonds from Waupau, Wisc., have wide fan blades. One Dempster tail was made at Mill Manufacturing in Beatrice in 1919. "That's what makes them beautiful," Nuxoll said of the Dempster tail. In addition to the several Mid-west manufacturers, he will feature some Nebraska-made ones-Fairburys from Fairbury, Successes from Hildreth. Windmill factories were located in Hastings, Hildreth, Holdrege and Nebraska City, he said. The Nebraska row will coincide with a road in his pasture that early residents used decades ago to avoid driving their covered wagons down a steep hill. Chalupa and Nuxoll spent one recent afternoon attaching a eight-foot-wide Aermotor wheel to a 21-foot tower to the row of Aermotors already established. Chalupa lowered a boom on the back of his truck that carried the whel. After adding oil to the motor, he attached the wheel to a hook on the boom. He climbed up the tower as Nuxoll raised the boom. Chalupa stood on a narrow platform as he positioned the wheel onto the tower, screwing in a nut, then used a hydraulic jack. In a matter of minutes, the wheel turns and spins rapidly in the strong, cool breeze. The smaller the wheel, the faster they churn, Nuxoll explains. "Every time you have one more windmill up, it makes it look so much prettier," he said. Chalupa said windmills can be erected in one day or take two weeks, depending on the number of missing pieces and needed paint. Assembling windmills involves some preparation work. Braces on towers sometimes need to be repaired before installation. "It's getting holes drilled, making anchors," he said. "If you have everything lined out and ready to go, you could put up two in a day." The windmill ranch along the Ord-Sargent highway has drawn a lot of attention from passersby, including Jo Smolik of Sargent, who stopped to talk with Nuxoll and Chalupa after they attached the wheel. "I think he's done an excellent job," she said. Walking further up the row of Aermotors, Nuxoll pointed out the largest Aermotor-a massive one with an eight-foot tail and 20-foot-diameter wheel that could pull water from 1,500 feet below. "From the road, you don't think it's so big," he said. "But if you got closer, you figure out how big it is." The windmill aficionado seems to have developed a kinship with the symbol of rural America. "All these windmills talk," he said. "Some cry. Some moan. Some squeak. Some whirr." Nuxoll also has been restoring and selling windmills to city parks. He recently sold a windmill to the village of Ashton, and it will be built in the next couple of weeks. "We try to make 100-year-old windmills look like they're new," he siad. Nuxoll would like to have 50 windmills in place by July 3 for the open house at 2 p.m. for the bed and breakfast. He plans to add another 75 for good measure over the next year. "When you go over 100, it's borderline insanity," Nuxoll said. | 
