Wandering Through The Kregel Windmill Factory Museum In Nebraska Is An Eccentric Experience You Won't Soon Forget
By Delana Lefevers|Published March 26, 2020
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Delana Lefevers
Author
As a lifelong Nebraskan, Delana loves discovering the many hidden treasures of her state. She has worked as a writer and editor since 2007. Delana's work has been featured on more than a dozen websites and in Nebraska Life Magazine.
If you’ve ever driven down country roads in Nebraska, you’ve no doubt seen tons of windmills standing like giants over the fields and near the homes. These essential contraptions provide fresh, clear water to keep both humans and livestock alive. They’re not as prevalent as they once were, but there’s one place in Nebraska City where you can see windmills and learn about how they were made many years ago. It’s definitely not your typical stuffy museum.
Kregel Windmill Factory Museum was once the Kregel Wind Mill Factory. It manufactured and serviced water-pumping windmills in the same building from 1903 to 1991.
The windmills made here were Eli brand, a name that you may still see today on some older windmills. When WWII erupted and steel was strictly rationed, the factory was unable to produce any more windmills. The place stayed open, however, to service and repair windmills.
In 1993, just two years after it closed for good, the factory was converted into a unique museum unlike anything else you've ever seen. It happens to be the only original intact windmill factory museum in the USA...and whatever you're picturing, it probably won't live up to what you'll actually see inside.
The factory has remained intact and looks exactly as it would have in the 1930s. See the original tools used by George Kregel, the factory's founder, and his employees. You can even stand at their work stations and imagine what it must have looked and sounded like way back when.
There are more than a million tools and other relics on display here. You'll see all of the original factory parts that manufactured Eli windmills for all those years. There are also everyday items like pens, ledgers, and office equipment that were simply left behind when the lights went out for the last time in the factory.
The sheer number of objects can be almost overwhelming at first, but your tour guide will explain what each of the tools did. As you learn about the history of not only Kregel Windmill Factory but the whole windmill industry, you may just be able to imagine what it was like to be here when the factory was operational.
Even if you're not a huge fan of factories or windmills, this place is special. We all know plenty about Nebraska's agricultural side, but it's not often that we get this close a look at part of the state's manufacturing history.
