Only Working Danish Windmill In America
Elk Horn, Iowa
Elk Horn and its nearby northern neighbor town of Kimballton comprise the largest rural Danish settlement in the U.S. Kimballton has a replica of the Little Mermaid statue, while Elk Horn hosts a tiny church and this windmill, 60 feet tall.
Built in 1848, the windmill was bought and shipped here for the 1976 US Bicentennial. To save money, the townspeople (Danes are famously frugal) decided to reassemble the windmill themselves, and they didn't complete the task until three months too late, in March 1977.
The folks in Elk Horn claim that those who knew of the windmill in Denmark also knew that it was falling apart, and that they were grateful that the Americans came to rescue and restore it. Denmark didn't buy that argument. It passed a law forbidding the exporting of any more of its windmills, so this is the only Danish one in America.
But then there are all of those Dutch windmills....
Only Working Danish Windmill In America
- Address:
- 4038 Main St., Elk Horn, IA [Show Map]
- Directions:
- South side of town, west side of Hwy 173. Difficult to miss.
- Phone:
- 712-764-7472
Nearby Offbeat Places
- Tiny Church: Morning Star Chapel, Elk Horn, IA - < 1 mi.
- Little Mermaid, Kimballton, IA - 3 mi.
- Plow in the Oak, Exira, IA - 8 mi.
- Tree in the Middle of the Road, Brayton, IA - 13 mi.
