Not many museums devote an entire room to wind energy, but the role of wind on the settlement of the Texas Panhandle is of such great importance that the Panhandle–Plains Historical Museum includes a room full of windmills. As Texas’ largest history museum, the Panhandle–Plains Historical Museum devotes the space and effort to clearly explore the native peoples, ranching, farming, and drilling that has…
Author: Lizette Twain
Weatherford Wind Energy Park
In a state where the wind comes “sweeping down the plain,” Oklahoma is a natural home for wind farms. One such farm is outside of Weatherford. But what makes this city particularly worth stopping by is Heritage Park, next to the Weatherford Police Department. Here, along with some educational displays, is an actual wind turbine blade laid lengthwise so that…
Understanding Maps
The time has come for a over of our mapping services to clear the way for further development of handy tools for our users. As such, this month we have rolled out a new map format to better allow our users to quickly peruse wind energy leases by disposition. In order to keep the maps as clutter free as possibly,…
Understanding Wind Lease Ownership
We receive lots of emails from people who find their name or a relative’s name on our site and want to know if this means they have some right to the land listed under that name. The short answer is, “if you have to ask, then probably not” but the complete answer deserves the time and attention that is best…
Understanding BLM Administrative Areas
We have added a new way to browse and explore leases: by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Administrative Area. To give context to this new feature, we wrote this handy explanation. Summary Nearly a quarter of a billion acres – about one-eighth of the landmass of the USA – is administered by the BLM. These public lands & resources contributed…
Understanding Townships
This entry focuses on a part of our earlier discussion, Understanding Location Data. For greater context on what we will be addressing, please read that post first. One of the more confusing aspects of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) is the concept of “townships.” A “township” can refer to two different things. Both are part of the PLSS measurement system but have…
Gusty Palm Springs
Last weekend we had the pleasure of riding along with Rich on his Palm Springs Wind Tour. If you find yourself in Coachella Valley and looking to learn more about the area, we highly recommend this 2 hour introduction and ride through Palm Spring’s past and present of wind energy collection. Learn more at Palm Spring Wind Tours The Coachella Valley is…
Understanding Location Data
Claims handled by the Bureau of Land Management are not mapped by latitude and longitude, as many maps now use. Instead, many of these claims harken back to an older form of surveying called the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), a measurement system that may seem confusing to the uninitiated, but was a great step forward in the time that it…
Welcome!
We are excited to have launched the Wind Energy Zones! There is a lot of wind energy collection that occurs across the US. While much of this is occurring on public lands, few people are able to discover the “who,” “what,” and “where” of public wind claims. Though this is a matter of public record, we aim to make it a matter of…