Windmills on Roanoke Island

Windmills on Roanoke Island. . “Everything on the Banks seems to be devoid of paint – dwellings, barns and windmills, of which there are a greater number than I supposed were in existence in the whole country.” , Charles Johnson, Hawkins Zouaves, 1862, Roanoke Island, and the Outer Banks in general, were festooned with windmills in the 19th century. There were windmills on Ocracoke, Hatteras and Bodie Island. On Roanoke Island, windmills operated in Wanchese, Manteo and on the North End. By mid-century, there were some 150 mills dotting the eastern seaboard of North Carolina’ all used wind power rather than water power to grind meal and do other work., North Carolina mills were called “post mills”, rectangular frame sheds built atop a single huge post on which the structure revolved. A long tail post stretched from the building to a wheel on the ground some seventy feet away by which the whole edifice was turned to catch the prevailing winds., The huge fans of these windmills consisted of four frame blades with canvas sails to cover their surfaces. The sails were furled to adjust to varying wind speeds in much the same way that sails are used on boats. Rotation of the fan turned a large, but simple, assembly of wooden gears inside the mill (pictured above). Thus, the power of the wind was transferred to a shaft which rotated one millstone against another. The grain, which was often dried kernels of corn, was poured between the two stones that crushed it into a fine meal., The windmill located here at Island Farm today is representative of the mill that stood on this farm from the mid-1800s until the early 20th century. National Park Service employee Lynanne Wescott extensively researched local windmills and hired craftsmen to reconstruct this operational structure in the 1970s. Traditional building techniques were used and the interior details were hand carved. Like earlier mills build to be easily moved from one location to another, this one was moved from Nags Head to the farm in 2010. As shown on an 1851 map, the site of the original farm windmill is near the present-day Elizabethan Gardens., Most of the windmills along the Outer Banks were used to grind grain, especially corn. But in other eastern North Carolina counties they have been used to pump water, saw timber, and even manufacture salt by pumping sea water into shallow evaporating reservoirs. Today wind energy is being captured to produce electricity throughout the world., (captions) , This photograph was taken by E.N. Anketell, who lived in Manteo., Wooden gears were used to transfer energy of the wind to rotate the grinding millstone. Inset shows interior of a post mill., This drawing of a windmill on Hatteras Island was done by Edwin Champney, a Union soldier, in 1862 (OBHC), Windmills ground corn kernels into cornmeal for cooking. Photograph by Emma Coleman.