The Murphy Windmill was put in the park in 1905 and was used to take advantage of all the winds to generate power. But when electricity, that cruel mistress, took over, nobody really needed it to work anymore and so it just kind of broke and stayed broke. But in 1993, a plan was laid out to get those suckers working again and to revamp the entire area. Over the years, estimates and plans were put and were given complete approval in 2001. The restoration has been ongoing since 2002 and the cap of the Southern windmill was even sent to the Netherlands to be repaired.
Hmmm...we wonder if that little pickup area near the windmill is still there and no, we didn't go there on purpose, we just got lost looking for a soccer game and made the wrong turn. Last time we did that.
There's kind of an irony to all of this too. As we said, the windmills were created to generate power but fell in disrepair because electricity came through and made the windmill sort of old school. But now that old school is new school, the windmills are going to be restored to generate power and keep us from using so much electricity. So take that, electricity. We'll see who has the last laugh.
If you want, you can check out these cool photos of the actual restoration project here.