In 1923, a Kansas ranch family used small wind turbine to power its off-grid home. A century later, 50 giant turbines stand on the same ranch

Long before giant wind turbines became part of America's energy landscape, one Kansas ranch family was already using the wind to keep the lights on. In 1923, Pete Ferrell's great-grandfather installed a small wind-powered generator at the family's remote ranch house because the electricity grid had not yet reached it. More than a century later, the same property has become home to 50 commercial wind turbines, providing the fourth-generation rancher with something increasingly valuable in agriculture: a reliable income that does not disappear when drought arrives.

How Wind Powered the Ranch Before the Grid Arrived

The Ferrell Ranch in Beaumont, Kansas, has been in the family since the late 19th century. When the homestead was built in 1923, electricity from the grid was not an option. According to a 2025 report by Environmental Defence Fund's VitalSigns, Ferrell's great-grandfather installed a Jacobs Windjammer direct-current turbine, pairing it with a Delco glass battery that could store the electricity it produced. The ranch house was effectively off-grid decades before the term became commonplace. Ferrell himself later told Kansas lawmakers that the Windjammer supplied electricity for lights and small appliances before the ranch was connected to the grid in the 1940s.

The Family Turned to Wind Harvesting Again

Decades later, Pete Ferrell was initially reluctant when a company approached him about putting commercial wind turbines on the ranch. He worried about what they would do to the landscape. A visit to California's Altamont Pass, where he spoke with ranchers already living alongside turbines, helped change his mind.


Ferrell eventually signed a 35-year lease, although that first development proposal collapsed. He then sought another partner, received six offers and ultimately reached an agreement with Greenlight Energy Resources. The Elk River Wind Project began operating in 2005 with 100 turbines. Half of them stand on Ferrell's approximately 7,000-acre ranch, while cattle continue grazing around them.

50 Turbines Became His ‘Best Cash Crop’

For a rancher, the attraction was not only electricity generation. It was predictability. Agricultural income can rise and fall with cattle prices, rainfall and drought. Wind royalties offered Ferrell a steadier source of money. He told VitalSigns that since the project began, around half of his income has come from wind royalties. Ferrell has a fitting description for it: his best “cash crop” is the one that continues during a drought. The entire wind project can generate enough electricity to meet the annual needs of about 60,000 homes, according to the report.

Cattle and Turbines Share the Same Land

Putting 50 enormous turbines on a cattle ranch might sound as though it would consume large amounts of grazing land. Ferrell's experience suggests otherwise. After construction, he said the ranch measured the land lost to turbine bases, roads and supporting infrastructure. About 50 acres of the 7,000-acre property could no longer be used for agriculture, roughly one acre for each turbine. The remaining land continues supporting the ranch's cattle.

A Century-Old Idea at a Much Bigger Scale

For Ferrell, wind energy has also helped address a problem facing many family farms: passing valuable land to the next generation without leaving successors overwhelmed by debt. He has two grown children and four grandchildren, and told VitalSigns that income from the wind project has helped put the ranch in a position to remain in the family.

The technology has changed dramatically since 1923, but the basic idea has not. A small Windjammer once supplied electricity to an isolated Kansas farmhouse. Today, 50 towering turbines rise above the same family's cattle and tallgrass prairie. For the Ferrells, harvesting the wind turned out not to be a new idea at all just an old family tradition operating on a much larger scale.