Wisconsin Life

You can't miss it. Right off Main Street, over 100 feet tall, the Little Chute Windmill. It's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship that Gene Janssen, long-time volunteer, helped to bring to the village.

The drive behind the windmill here is

a while back, in 1999, a group of us went over to Holland, and we came back and decided to put this windmill in our town because of our Dutch heritage. So the ladies mostly started the Little Chute Historical Society. And a group of us started getting this windmill.

Angela

Over several years of fundraising a windmill was finally ordered from Holland. So, we got seven different countries that we get the wood from. It was built in Holland and they assembled it in Holland. And disassemble it. They put it on a boat and five containers, and shipped it to Chicago. And we picked it over here and Boldt Construction reconstructed it. Well, we had groundbreaking in August 2011. So, and that took a while. This is going on our fifth year that we're open. Congratulations. - Well, thank you. We had a lot of help and we still need help to keep this thing going, like everything else, you know. Once the mill was constructed, it needed two things to get it up and running. A miller, and the right weather. The miller is trained by the guy from Holland and certified by the guy from Holland. However a miller has to have wind to operate this. This is not by electrical switch. I know the history and we've got wind. So who better to get the mill running than Gene's son, and head miller, Larry Janssen. We want to see this windmill in action. So what part are we looking at, right now? We're on the second level of the windmill. This is the large gear that drives the grinding wheel. A shaft here goes onto the grinding wheel. The gear teeth have here go into the wallower-- that we have over there, that drive the grinding wheel down on the lower level. Also, up on this level, we have a board system that actually holds the wallower in place. This shaft here goes up to upper level, which is attached to the blades that our sails are on.

light music

Angela

Gene reminds us visitors can take home more than just freshly ground flour. I have yet to give a tour that nobody did not like this place. They were welcomed and they are gonna bring other people back, and that helps, too. Believe me, we make it satisfying. We got more here than people think we have.