Who kept the windmills running? SLO County repairman was last of his kind

Though wind power is enjoying a modern renaissance of sorts with leases for electric power generation off the coast, windmills have actually been part of the local landscape since the late 19th century.

In a land of scarce water, it makes sense to harness wind power to draw well water, especially in isolated places where it would be too expensive to power with electric or gas motors.

Though they look bucolic, those windmills can also be a source of strife.

An Oct. 17, 1952, story said Mrs. Bob Bianchini had called the police department at 2:05 a.m. to complain about a squeaking and groaning windmill.

The property manager of the neighboring property on Foothill Boulevard was dispatched like Don Quixote to do battle, armed with lubricating oil.

In an article playing up the “last of his kind” angle, a 1968 Telegram-Tribune piece talked to Jim Brabeck at Farm Supply who also installed and repaired windmills. He would later head that organization.

The following story was written March 31, 1973, by George DeBord. He would later become editor of the Morro Bay Sun-Bulletin and after that editor of the Telegram-Tribune.

The county’s windmill man has his field to himself

One thing that Mervel W. Tucker doesn’t have to worry about is competition. There aren’t many like him around anymore.

Tucker is a specialist in windmills.

He installs them and repairs them and moves them from one place to another. For the past 40 years, he’s made a good living at it, and in that time he’s never run across anyone he could talk shop with.

“I’ve never met anyone else in this line of work,” he says. “There must be others — there has to be — I’ve just never met them.”

As far as he knows, he is the only windmill repairman in the county and in this part of the state. He lives in a neat little bungalow in Shandon and covers a huge area in his truck that is especially rigged for windmill work.

The area runs from Avenal to Santa Margarita and from Carrisa Plains to the coast.

The business seems to run in cycles. There are boom times and slow times. But in a year’s time, there is an adequate amount of work to provide him with a comfortable living.

Tucker, who is 58, doesn’t buy the theory that windmills are a thing of the past. He estimates that there are between 200 and 250 still in operation in the area he serves.

“A few have been abandoned,” he says, “but not too many. The word ‘vanishing’ doesn’t really apply. Business is just as good, if not better, than back when I started.”

He acknowledges that there is very little demand for new windmills. He last installed a new one two years ago. Only one company, the Aermotor Co. of Chicago, still builds them.

What has happened, he says, is that farmers and ranchers have turned to used windmills. A large part of his work consists of moving them from abandoned wells to new wells.

He believes that there are almost as many steel windmills in operation as there have ever been. The windmills that are disappearing, he says, are those built with wooden platforms.

He last installed one of those 15 years ago.

A new windmill with a steel tower costs about $700 to $1,000, depending on the size of the fan and the height of the tower. Used rigs can be purchased for considerably less than that.

Tucker says that a few mills still are used in the county to pump domestic water supplies. But the majority of them are scattered about the vast grazing lands, in ravines and washes, far from anything.

“Once it’s installed, it’s really a cheap source of power,” he says. “And you don’t have to worry about servicing it. Those are the advantages and that’s why you still have a lot of them around. You’ll always have them in this kind of cattle country.”

The windmill, in recent decades, has given way to pumps driven by gasoline engines or electric motors in some cases. But these require additional servicing and special conditions that aren’t necessary for windmills.

Particularly in remote areas, the windmill will always have a place, he says. The one problem with windmills is that of having sufficient wind for operation. While a windmill fan will turn in the slightest breeze, it will not pump much water unless the wind velocity is at least 15 miles an hour.

Tucker says he has never really considered going into another line of work.

“I like it, and it’s interesting,” he says. “I guess that’s why I’ve always stayed with it.”

He learned the business from his father, back in the beginning of the depression years.

The one thing that bothers him is the question of what will happen after he retires.

“I’d like to quit about the time I get to 65,” he says. “But right now there isn’t anyone I could turn the business over to. I don’t know of anybody who is following this kind of work anymore. I have a stepson who has helped me and has been interested in it. But he can’t seem to stop what he’s doing long enough to really learn it.

It seems kind of strange that there wouldn’t be someone else who might want to do this.”