Weeks Mills Waterworks' windmill at the Windsor Fairgrounds

[Bill Reidy]

Interesting recent article from the Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel:

Windmill tower rises at Windsor Fairgrounds
The 1910 tower, from the Weeks Mills Waterworks, will be part of the Windsor Historical Society exhibits at the fair.

"...In the meantime, however, Windsor Fair goers and others can see a part of the 1910 water works that once supplied water to a dozen homes in the village of Weeks Mills. The Windsor Fair runs Aug. 27-Sept. 4 this year...

"“It came on the WW&F (Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington) Railway,” Bassett said, giving the colloquial translation as “Weak, Wobbly and Frail,” and noting that it was a narrow gauge railway...."

http://www.centralmaine.com/2017/08/12/windmill-tower-rises-at-windsor-fairgrounds/

Note the photo of the saw mill building under construction.

Steve P.:  See the mention about printing at the fair.  A check of the fair's website finds a newspaper advertising inset at http://www.windsorfair.com/files/2017WindsorFairInsert.pdf .  Page 3 notes the museum has an 1888 printing press used for demonstration purposes.

[John Kokas]

The post and beam sawmill structure that is featured as part of the windmill article is something we should go see and evaluate.  Looks like a formidable structure. 

[Alex Harvilchuck]

How about cross-marketing? Mention the windmill at the Museum and in turn talk about the Museum by the windmill. Encourage visitors in both directions and provide greater exposure for both efforts.

We could decide how it was shipped on the WW&F and make a prop crate labeled as such. Normally it would be in the LCL/Freight exhibit, but during photo shoots it would be on a flatcar.

How close to the WW&F/W&Q ROW is the Windsor Fairgrounds? I realize Weeks Mills is a bit past Head Tide ....

[Bob Holmes]

Very close...I suspect others can detail exactly...

[James Patten]

Several miles, across a fairly broad valley.  The fairgrounds sits up relatively high above the valley, as far as railroad grading would go.

[Jeff Schumaker]

I have wondered if wind mills were used in Maine, having not found any photos in my searches. Do any historic photos of Weeks Mills show the water works facilities?

Jeff S.

[Paul Uhland]

So newspaper, where is a photo of the windmill raising? 
Strange.

[Philip Marshall]

I don't think windmills for pumping water were ever common in New England, for the simple reason that the ground water table is generally pretty shallow and surface water is abundant in comparison to other parts of the US, so deep boreholes simply weren't necessary in most cases.