Monday, January 14, 2013

WINDMILL TOWN TEXAS USA



This Thursday, our little city will be the host of the regional
Texas Municipal League Quarterly Meeting
to be held at the Civic Center in Amarillo

Our former mayor will give the program which I created for him and was so honored to do so.

As I was creating this program, it gave me great satisfaction to realize how much a part I had in this whole event. I was the chamber director and looking back I realize something I did not at the time...

it is possibly one of my greatest achievements that will benefit our town forever.  I am a behind the scenes kinda gal, and I highly doubt that 16 years later folks in this town even remember that I had anything to do with it at all.   I don't care about that..really...all I care about is that my husband and kids know it and that it will make a substantial impact...a very positive one.

 Our little oilfield pop up town is ...well...not that cute when seen by the highway. The idea was to place the mills (68 now) throughout the town so that folks could get a good look at how neat our little corner of the world is.  I can remember finding the way points of all the mills to list them on the chamber website....16 years ago, GPS was futuristic to our windmillers who are all 70+.  We also created a memorial fence and the local businesses adopted the mills...these proceeds fund the efforts of the association.

On this day, we were presented the flags that flew over the US Capitol by our Congressman Larry Combest; and the one that flew over the State Capitol by our State Senator Teel Bivins.  The first mill was brought in by a team of Clydesdale horses and raised by the power of a 1920 steam engine.  All 3 news channels were on the scene and we had a crowd of over 300.

One of these mills in the collection is at the Smithsonian and the collection was in the process of being purchased by Texas Tech University...that is until I said...

Wait just one dang minute here...

and the rest...

as they say...is history!


8 comments:

Tina@WhatWeKeep said...

Wow, this was so interesting. You should be proud! Buchanan is a family name, but I don't think there's any relation to your Buchanan's. I'm going to share with my aunt...she'll love this!
Congrats on a job well done, Gina!

momto8 said...

congrats to you!! what a cool and fun project!! yea for all of you!!

Marina in Blue said...

Great job Gina, I would like to know more about these windmills.

Marina

heather @ new house, new home, new life said...

Is there anything you can't do? This project is a legacy that will last forever. You should be so proud.....

Marissa said...

Congratulations to you and your town! !That is a great accomplishment!!

Carolyn@Sweet Chaos Home said...

Wow! Way to make history, girl! Those windmills are so cool.

Stacy CUrran said...

You really should be so be so proud!! Congrats :)
Stacy

Anajá Schmitz said...

Parabéns pelo belo projeto. Meu marido sempre quis construir um catavento para ter energia em nossa fazenda.
É muito bom quando o governo apoia projetos para melhorar a vida da comunidade. Aqui não se tem incentivo para pesquisa da parte do governo. Cada pessoa financia sua própria pesquisa.
Tenha um ótimo fim de semana.