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May 17, 2007
by Janine Calsbeek
Sioux County Capital-Democrat (reprinted
with permission of Pluim Publishing, Inc)
Orange City's 'molens' are the fruit of
handyman's challenge
ORANGE CITY – The measurements on the molen plans were thumbs and arms.
The width of the draftsman's thumb would be translated to the length from the
carpenter's middle finger to his elbow.
But unconventional plans didn't stop Rod Shea. He made "Sara," a stellingmolen,
from those plans... plans written in the 1850s, for full-sized mills, in Dutch.
He likes challenges.
Shea, originally of Parker, S.D., married a Dutch girl from Sheldon, Sara
Monster, whose dad Leo and mom Hattie's parents all immigrated from the
Netherlands. When the Sheas took Sara's mom to Holland in '82, they fell in love
with windmills.
Hattie wanted a windmill in her living room.
So Shea, handyman that he is, made her a three-foot windmill. Then he built one
for his parents, Earl and Edna Shea. Then he built one for his own Wisconsin
home.
The next time they visited the Netherlands, they concentrated on molens. Sara's
cousins got them private tours, so Shea climbed into the cap of working mills,
watching huge gears at work.
He asked someone how to restore a molen, learned about the University of
Leiden's class, and was given a set of plans for new construction, a gift from
Sara's cousins. The plans were 150 years old, and not in Shea's native language.
A translator helped. So did modern tools and techniques.
His tower mill "Sara," named after his wife, fit in their 3/4-acre wooded yard,
and though much smaller than stellingmolens in Holland, was big enough to serve
as a storage shed.
But Shea, who worked for 35 years for the U.S. Forest Service, wasn't one to let
go of an obsession. For many years, he did research in the forest products
laboratory... developing products like glu-lam and plywood, publishing
information on the strength of various species of wood, researching the possible
use of everything from moss and tree bark to lumber. He learned to think outside
the box, he said. He also spent years building the Sheas' furniture, cabinets,
and an addition to their home.
So after he built the 26-foot-high stellingmolen, complete with a plaque telling
its name and the date of construction, he built another. The "Briana" is named
after his first granddaughter, the "Brooke," after his second. Others were named
after his daughter-in-law Dawn, his son Todd, and finally himself.
He had plans for "Sara," but the other replicas were taken from artists'
sketches in books, enlarged.
The "Rod" is a tjasker, a small mill with a simple construction – basically an
inclined shaft and set of sails. It was used to drain pasture land, to keep
livestock from getting hoof rot, said Shea. Water was pumped into a small canal
which led to larger canals. Poldermolens, the large drainage mills like Shea's
"Todd," took over from there.
The poldermolens were a government project for draining the swamp lands, the
polders. Each lifted water three feet, so a group of five could lift water 15
feet and over the dike to the ocean, said Shea. They were hand-crafted, of
course, but all with the same plans, and maybe 15 or 30 would be set on each
polder.
Other molens were designed individually, for specific needs. Shea's "Brooke" is
a sawmill.
From 1200
The earliest molen was the standardmolen, or post mill, like his "Dawn," which
was first constructed in the 1200s. The entire mill rotates, including the
mechanism for grinding corn.
Later the wipmolen came along, the hollow post mill, Shea's "Briana." Only the
top half turns; the base is stationary.
The "Todd" and "Sara" are the latest generation, with only the cap turning.
Sails were turned into the wind with the help of manpower and a tail pole, or
with a huge captain's wheel – eight feet in diameter. Log chains were hooked
around posts in the ground, to assist with the turning of the wheel, cap and
sails. A 100-foot or larger windmill like "Sara" needed a deck, or stage, on
which workers stood to position the sails.
Of course, if a storm was approaching, the sails were turned perpendicular to
the wind, so the sails wouldn't get out of hand. Blades are fragile, said Shea.
Plus the friction of the brakes – wooden blocks against wooden wheels – would
cause fires. Many mills were destroyed by fire.
In the early 1800s, every community in Holland had at least one or two mills,
one to grind flour, others for specific industries... grinding dyes for paint,
shredding tobacco, pressing nuts and fruits for oil. Instead of using horses,
they used wind.
In the mid-1800s the number of windmills in the Netherlands probably reached its
peak – at 20 to 30,000, according to Shea. Diesel and electric engines brought
about the rapid demise of the molens. Now there are less than 800 in the
country, Shea said.
More recently an organization was begun in the Netherlands, the Association for
the Preservation of Windmills.
Now, Orange City
Shea's backyard has fewer windmills now too. It was crowded; some of the molens
had to be angled to keep the blades from hitting others. Sara and Rod decided
that they may move someday, so they started talking about another home for the
molens.
Discussion with his aunt and uncle, Doris and Art De Hoogh, began nine years
ago... about the Sheas donating the molens to Orange City. The De Hooghs live
here; Doris is Edna Shea's sister.
The city of Orange City officially accepted the gift of the molens in May '04.
Vogel Paints provided trucks to haul the molens from Middleton, Wisc. to Orange
City, and volunteers helped – Stan Vandersall, Art De Hoogh, Harold Vander Laan
and Paul Aykens.
And now, a couple of years later, the molens are in Orange City's Windmill Park.
That is, five of the six Shea windmills are now in the park. The "Rod" is still
to come.
Volunteers – mostly from the Dutch Heritage Boosters – have done much of the
work in refurbishing the molens, repairing rotten sections of one, removing
carpet from the sides of another. The tops of a couple of molens were coated
with fiberglass. And they received several coats of paint.
Despite the changes, care was taken to keep the molens as true to historic
windmills as possible, said Art De Hoogh, and hopefully Shea will approve. Shea
and his wife plan to visit Tulip Festival Friday.
And the bridge?
Bob Huibregtse and Russ Vande Steeg are behind the bridge design, a replica of
the bridge over the Amstel River in Ouderkerk, in North Holland. It was a
drawbridge, used for centuries to permit the passage of ships with high masts.
In 1939 it was replaced by a concrete vertical lift bridge.
For safety reasons, the replica in Orange City does not lift.
But visitors are welcome to walk across the bridge, over the small canal. The
bridge slope is one inch per foot, or less, in accordance with the disability
act, said Vande Steeg. So it's suitable for those in wheelchairs.
Harold Vander Laan, Art De Hoogh and Orville Beltman did most of the bridge
construction.
Volunteers in the Molen Garden
The bridge is modeled after a historic drawbridge in Ouderkerk, in North
Holland... and the windmills are replicas of historic molens. Volunteers who did
much of the bridge design, construction and painting, and refurbishing of the
molens, are (l-r) Harold Vander Laan, Art De Hoogh, Russ Vande Steeg, Bob
Huibregtse, Henry Van Aartsen and Orville Beltman. Others, including Paul Aykens,
assisted. Rod Shea of Middleton, Wisconsin, who constructed the molens and
donated them to Orange City, will visit the Tulip Festival Friday. (Photo by
Janine Calsbeek)
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