American Wind Power Center, Wind power museum in Lubbock, United States

The American Wind Power Center displays more than 160 different windmills across its grounds, ranging from old water-pumping mills to modern turbines. Each machine represents a different stage in how this technology evolved over time.

Billie Wolfe, a Texas Tech faculty member, began photographing and documenting windmills across the country in the early 1960s. She located a restored collection of forty-eight rare mills in Mitchell, Nebraska, and Coy F. Harris arranged, disassembled and moved it to Lubbock. The center was established in 1993; the mills stayed in storage until 1997, when the city granted park land, and in 1999 Harris moved a larger metal fabrication building to the site.

You can see how wind power became central to farming life across the plains, shaping how communities worked and settled the landscape. The displays show the everyday role these machines played in people's survival and daily routines.

The grounds are easy to walk through and give you plenty of room to move between machines and study each one. Wear comfortable shoes since you will spend most of your time outdoors.

A 4,000 sq ft "G" scale train display opened on June 22, 2016 in a 33,000 sq ft addition, set in early 1900s scenery when windmills and trains supplied each other. The same wing holds the Alta Reeds miniature house collection.