The ‘windmill capital of the world’ used to be down the road from Chicago

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Investigation, Chicago, Radio, Arts, Society & Culture, Public, Education, Curious, City

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Suburban Batavia, just 30 miles west of Chicago, used to be known as the windmill capital of the world. But eventually, technological advances took the wind out of the industry’s sails. In our last episode, we looked into why there are no wind turbines in the Great Lakes even though conditions are favorable. Legal and political hurdles continue to challenge the offshore wind energy business in the Midwest. Today, we’re going to take an historical look at the wind industry in our region. In modern times, Batavia is known for Fermilab, America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory. But long before that, Batavia was on the map for hosting six windmill factories. Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke and City Clerk Kate Garrett dive into the town’s history. They take pride in the past, but look forward to the future.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello.
0:01.0	What's up, Chicago?
0:03.0	Are you Kate?
0:04.0	I'm Erin Allen.
0:05.0	I'm Erin.
0:06.0	Nice to meet you.
0:07.0	And this is Curious City.
0:09.0	Right now, I'm way out west.
0:12.0	Well, like 30 miles west of Chicago, that is.
0:15.0	Well, welcome to Batavia.
0:17.0	Thank you.
0:18.0	I'm at the Batavia Depot Museum with director Kate Garrett.
0:21.6	We could...
0:22.6	Introduce you to the windmills exhibit downstairs.
0:23.6	And the reason I'm here is because our last episode was all about wind turbines.
0:29.6	And if Chicago is ever going to get any...
0:32.6	In answering that question, we learned that Batavia, the suburb, used to be the windmill capital of the world.
0:40.0	We have a lot of heritage with windmills specifically. Hi, Mayor Shalke. How you doing?
0:45.5	Joining us to explain both why and why used to be is the mayor of Batavia. Well, my name is Jeff
0:52.9	Shelke. I'm the sixth generation of my family to live in Batavia, and I have now been the mayor for 12
0:59.5	terms.
1:00.4	45 years.
	...

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