Participants on a Benton County wind farm tour, offered through the Benton County office of economic development, can walk right up to and touch this 138-foot wind turbine blade, from a GE 1.5 MW turbine, which has been painted by San Francisco artist Cameron Mobert. Photo by Amy Long/For the Journal & Courier
A group of 48 seniors from the Bensenville and Wood Dale park districts in Illinois took a tour of the Benton County wind farms, offered through the Benton County office of economic development, on September 19, 2017. The tour included an up-close look at a wind turbine near Earl Park. Photo by Amy Long/For the Journal & Courier)
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Amy Long, For the Journal & Courier
FOWLER — To travelers on I-65, they are beacons that mark halfway between Indianapolis and Chicago.
To conservationists, they are symbols of the future of green energy. To creative souls, they are elegant, minimalist sculpture that sprout from the cornfields like giant steel beanstalks. To the residents of Benton County, which borders Tippecanoe County to the northwest, they are ever-present emblems of progress and economic development.
To many, they are a curiosity: 560 massive wind turbines that make up the Benton County wind farms — jaw-dropping marvels of engineering that loom about 300 feet above the earth and harness the power of the wind to collectively generate almost 1,000 megawatts of electricity (enough to power 300,000 homes).
If you build it, they will come. And when it comes to the turbines in Benton County, no one knows this better than Harry Hoover. Since 2010, he’s led tours offered through the county’s office of economic development and estimates he’s hosted about 6,000 visitors in all — from those with a passing fancy to hard-core gear heads, individual sight-seers to larger groups and clubs.
“People have told us, ‘You’re the only one we can find on Google that gives wind farm tours,’ ” says Hoover, whose outings include a video presentation, a question-and-answer session, the opportunity to touch a turbine blade, and a trek out to a working turbine for an up-close view.
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