Although windmills are not designed today, they will standto time indefinite. That is if Jim Collums has anything to say about it. He is a local Poteet windmill collector who enjoys them so much that he also restores them to their former glory days. Many of his windmills are on display at his Poteet Winery. Collums has donated one of his windmills, in addition to a water tank, to a Pleasanton museum, in Atascosa County, the Longhorn Museum. Visitors come here to learn more about the Atascosa area.
While Collum has not completed the project, he predicts that it will be done within a year. It will consist of an 18-foot fan situated on a 32-foot tower. It will resemble a windmill from the 1880’s. The project can certainly use your support. A member of the Longhorn Museum Society, Patsy Troell, is accepting money to help build the windmill. The funds will go to purchasing the hardware and other materials needed to finish the project. Checks should be made payable to the Longhorn Museum Society for all of those who wish to assist with the project.
This isn’t the first time Collums has assisted the society. He has also contributed to the Yesteryear Festival by lending his chuck wagon and even making good old-fashioned cobbler. This year, he has been asked to speak about windmills, since he has been collecting them as early as the 1980’s. It was when Collum was speaking to Troell that he expressed an interest in helping. The entire exhibit, the windmill, and the water tank will be seated on the Longhorn Museum property around the exterior of the depot. Collum’s has done this in previous years and the cost incurred amounted to $40,000. Hence, no doubt, this is why there is a plea for voluntary donations. It will undoubtedly help to off-set some of his personal expenses.
Why Such a Love of Windmill’s
As exciting as the project is, Troell is thinking even bigger. She would like to get the local railroad involved by asking them to donate part of the train track. It is clear that those days of seeing wooden windmills constructed are long gone. Collums confirmed that the wooden blades were no longer made after the turn of the century due to the introduction of galvanized metal. He explained how he had always wanted to find someone with a similar interest in Windmills and knew that there weren’t that many windmill museums in existence. Collum explained how he had such fond memories of waking up at his grandmother’s and seeing the windmill. It was then that his love of windmills began.
Collum’s collection of windmills consists of one that is currently in the archives at The Smithsonian. Luck would have it that there were others who were familiar with his impressive collection of windmills. The organizer of the project at the Longhorn Museum is excited to be working with Collums and is certain that even after this exhibit, they will work with him again in the future.