Walk into the Kregel Windmill Factory Museum on Central Avenue in Nebraska City, and you are transported back in time, with everything frozen in the 1923, at the factory’s peak.

The unique Kregel museum memorializes a type of industrial history like nowhere else. Although a few machines have been moved slightly to accommodate visitors, tools remain exactly the way they were when owner Art Kregel left for lunch on a fateful Friday in 1991. Even a Dempster gear box Kregel was trying to repair remains in a vice, ready for Kregel to return to work on Monday morning.

Kregel went home that day to eat lunch and suffered a stroke before he could return to the factory. He died a few months later, ending a legacy of windmill design, construction and service that had lasted 112 years, and a family manufacturing history that dated back to 1879.

Practically every Nebraska farmer and rancher in the early part of the 20th century relied on a windmill for pumping water. “Windmills allowed the settlement of the West, because farmers and ranchers didn’t have to live near surface water anymore, but could take advantage of groundwater,” says David Flatt, executive director of the museum.

“At one time there were 1,000 windmill manufacturers in the country,” Flatt says. “But this is the only intact original windmill factory museum in the U.S., and it contains one of only 13 operable factory line shafts still in the original position found in the country.”

“It is like a time capsule from the early 1900s, with tools still left on the work tables and penciled notes still left on Art’s desk,” Flatt notes. “The safe is still open. Art’s coat still hangs by his desk.”

The Kregel family manufactured more than 2,000 Eli brand windmills, with the last one being produced in 1983. But after that, the shop was operated as a windmill and water pump service and repair shop.

“Not only did the family manufacture, build and repair windmills for many years, but they also served the community as a general repair shop because of the tools and expertise they had,” Flatt says.

The museum is the Kregel shop, with the production line and maintenance tools interpreted for visitors. The main attraction is the line shaft that ran the equipment and could still run today. Most of the manufacturing and repair tools date back a century or more, including the power shear, punch and riveting machine that dates to the late 1800s and a metal-turning lathe that dates to 1860. That’s why the Kregel legacy is so important to the history of agriculture in the state. And it is also why this museum is significant in telling that story.

Cousins George and Louis Kregel began an agricultural manufacturing business across the street from the current factory museum in Nebraska City in 1879. Eventually, the company began building windmills that were developed by George.

The unique Kregel design was the basis for the famous Eli windmills made at the factory that opened in 1902 where the museum is now located. George named the windmills for a Lutheran pastor and family friend in Nebraska City, Eli Hubbard. The windmills had an innovative direct stroke, self-oiling design and a ball-bearing swivel, all built for low maintenance.

George passed away in 1946, and the business was taken over by his son, Art. George’s daughter, Ella, was bookkeeper and secretary for the business until she passed away at work at her desk at age 79 in 1971. At the museum, Ella’s meticulous business records make up one of the most complete collections of its kind in the state, Flatt says.

Out of the 2,000 Eli windmills manufactured at the factory and sold directly to farmers, mostly within a 50-mile radius in southeast Nebraska and into Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, about 100 are known to be still operational. Workers at the Kregel factory were trained blacksmiths, and they knew how to work each station in the factory.

“The line shaft was the center of everything,” Flatt says. “It ran the equipment, so you can imagine that this was a noisy place when everyone was working during the day,” he explains. “They would have a meeting each morning and talk through the day’s work, but after that they didn’t want a lot of talking between employees. One quick look away from a machine they were using could mean a tragic accident with all the moving parts.”

It took about a week to manufacture a windmill in the factory and assemble it on a farm, Flatt says. The steel windmills were built with metal blades that were rolled and trimmed to size, then crimped twice at the end to strengthen the tip of each blade. At its peak in 1923, the factory had six to eight employees and built 130 windmills. During World War II, when steel was rationed, the company turned their focus from manufacturing to repair and service.

The great miracle of the Kregel story is that after Art died, the family turned the entire factory, including the tools, over to the Kimmel Foundation and Wirth Foundation for preservation. “Most of the time, the tools would be sold off or scrapped,” Flatt says. “The family did not do that but turned everything over for preservation in 1993.” The facility operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit museum.

To the untrained eye, the Kregel factory may seem like just an old workshop, but to anyone who appreciates the development of water resources and the history of the West, it is a testament to the innovation and creativity of a family that contributed greatly to the state’s agricultural and industrial history.

Learn more at kregelwindmillfactorymuseum.org.