Nebraska City windmill factory named to National Historic Landmarks list

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Monday announced 19 new National Historic Landmarks in the United States.

The Kregel Windmill Company Factory in Nebraska City was part of that list.

Kregel is the only known surviving and intact windmill factory in the country; there were once over 1,000 factories nationwide.

Windmills were instrumental in railroad expansion, farming and ranching practices in the Midwest.

The Kregel Windmill Factory produced windmills from 1902 until 1941, when national windmill manufacturing was dramatically reduced.

The machinery, tools and supplies the company used to create the windmills are still inside the factory.

Rehabilitation of the factory finished in 2012, when the building opened as a museum.