I took a few pictures. They're all pretty large if you click on them.
The turbine is at the site of a closed coal mine. The Hillsboro paper tells us:
The 230-foot turbine sits on top of a 60-foot gob pile at the former Freeman Crown 1 Coal Mine, which closed in 1971.
The site was covered with a layer of clay soil in 1991 and planted with a mix of grasses for wildlife cover, and donated to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in 1995.
Abandoned buildings and mining equipment are still around the "gob knob" turbine.
"Crown Mine 1950"
I love the symbolism. It was built by the Rural Electric Convenience Co-op, based in Auburn.
I couldn't hear it make any noise until I was almost directly under it on a windy day. The frogs were much louder.
A road sign to the past and a vision of the future. We're at a crossroads in Illinois politics and economic growth. We can listen to politicians like John Shimkus tell us wistful stories about the coal industry reviving, or we can attract green jobs in the new energy economy.
At the ribbon cutting Pat Quinn said he,
believes that the state’s plan to require 20 percent of its electricity to come from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power by 2020 may draw wind turbine manufacturers to Illinois.
“As we do that, more companies will be interested in manufacturing the wind turbines right here in our own back yard,” he said, adding that the state may even increase the percentage of required renewable energy.
I had ancestors mining coal in Central Illinois over 100 years ago. One of them also worked as a blacksmith. Another ran a stagecoach inn. Times change.