There are two themes running through Iron Horse Claim: railroads and windmills. Both of these innovations transformed the nation, particularly the West.
Windmills had been around for centuries, but the ability to manufacture and mass-produce windmills didn’t occur until the mid-1800s. In 1854, Daniel Halladay designed the first self-regulating model. Other inventors followed, such as Leonard Wheeler. The Eclipse windmill, designed by Wheeler, featured a mechanism pointing the windmill at the optimum angle for wind speed and direction.
The Eclipse revolutionized farming and ranching in the West by providing technology that supplied water to farmers and ranchers in the arid lands west of the Mississippi. Homesteaders were no longer dependent on timely rainfall to water crops and cattle. The windmills pumped water into stock tanks, allowing farmers and ranchers to control when and where the water was used.
Railroad companies also constructed windmills and water tanks to fuel the steam locomotives that were crisscrossing the country. That’s why you’d often see water tanks near old train depots.
In Iron Horse Claim, Lizzy Ward understands the importance of reliable water sources. Even though Medicine Creek borders her farmland, the threat of drought prompts her to be an early adopter of wind technology. These Eclipse windmills were one of the first commercially successful windmills and were sold in kits, making it easy for farmers and ranchers to assemble and erect a “giant on the prairie.”