Onondaga Nation Communications
by Regina Jones
If you drove or walked by Roger Cook’s on the morning of Saturday, May 3, you would have witnessed the monumental reconstruction of a windmill that will generate alternative energy to the home. Initially, the windmill will power an outside yard light and will be connected to existing solar panels that will store energy produced by the windmill when there is no wind.
The relocated “windmill on steel tower,” as Windmillers’ Gazette at http://windmillersgazette.com/gallery.html describes it, was built in 1925 by Aermotor, a company that was based in Chicago, Illinois. The windmill came from a farm in Ogdensburg, New York. The farm is being sold by Linda Martin who stated that every farm had a windmill. The steel tower stands 35 feet tall and the wheel is 8 foot in diameter. The windmill was dismantled in November, 2007. Roger and his brother, Angus, brought it back to Onondaga piece by piece. Their mother, Gloria Cook, said that you would never have guessed that those pieces laying in the yard were the same pieces that were put back together, painted, and now being raised in the front yard.
Roger does much of his alternative energy research on the internet and has envisioned alternative energy production for more than two years along with Verna Jones and Alex Tarbell. Their experimentation included constructing smaller scaled windmills that powered small lights to show that it could be done. Roger has also experimented with a water wheel.
Paint and parts for the windmill were ordered and shipped from Texas. Gordon Jones, Jr., (a.k.a. Porky) helped Roger put the windmill back together. Roger’s raising gang included Shannon Booth, Jim Confer, Angus Cook, Cheyenne Jacobs, and Alex Tarbell. When asked for a quote, Roger said, “Well, the purpose of the whole thing is to begin using alternative energy and I hope people will begin to go green and conserve energy for those yet unborn.”