This tiny town got the first big Kansas wind farm 20 years ago. Here's what happened

As long as the wind has been blowing through the Kansas plains, people have been harnessing it to do their work. But it wasn’t until 2001 that the first large-scale, megawatt-generating wind farm took root outside this small town in southwestern Kansas and began to harness the power of breezes on a 21st-century scale. For anyone with a wall socket, it began to change what turned on the lights. For the environment, the wind farm marked another step to lighten mankind’s footprint on the planet. For people in the shadows of those towering three-blade contraptions, it meant found money “I like them,” said Orville Williams. “They’ve been a very great economic boost for this area.” - KMWU