Patty, Craig, and J.B. Buchanan
Spearman, TX (October 1983) 

It all began in 1983 when we saw a story on windmills on a local news broadcast.  The special was about a man named J.B. Buchanan who collected, restored, and maintained windmills on his farm between Stinnett and Spearman, in the panhandle of Texas.  Patty had videotaped the story (we still have it) and it fascinated our son Craig, who was 2 at the time.  That year, in October, on our way to Colorado, we drove to Spearman and found Mr. Buchanan's farm.  He was dressed in a suit and ready to go somewhere, but graciously took a few minutes to show us his windmills.

Very early in 2010, a friend asked Patty and me to try to photograph a windmill for her husband who has a collection of windmill art in the office in their home.  That renewed our interest in windmills and the search was on.  The image that she selected was one taken on my way home from work on one very cold January evening (it's the image in the "Watch Slideshow" icon at left).  Some of the other images in this collection are from that search.

In May of 2010, Patty, Craig, and I had the occasion to go to a wedding of a cousin in Dalhart, TX.  By that time, Mr. Buchanan had passed away and some of his windmills had been donated to the Smithsonian Institution; however, many had been relocated into a park dedicated to windmills in memory of Mr. Buchanan.  So, we headed back to Spearman, TX for an enjoyable afternoon at the park.

Many of the windmills in this gallery are located near my work in Johnson County, TX.  Others are from the windmill park in Spearman and a couple of the images are of windmills in The Netherlands.

 Updated 7/19/2016.   Added image #23 (Windmill at Kinderdijk, The Netherlands)