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Seth Davidson isn't tilting at windmills. He's touting them. Davidson, a tourism promoter, has put together a new travel project--the Wind Power Trail--and he's preparing to put the Blue Canyon wind farm north of Lawton on his map. The entire trail covers some 689 miles and stretches from a wind farm at Lubbock, Texas, through the Texas panhandle and into Oklahoma with stops of interest to wind aficionados--both cutting edge and nostalgic. In Oklahoma, the trail goes as far east as the Bergey Wind Power manufacturing plant in Norman. Other Oklahoma stops include an outdoor vintage windmill collection, a wind farm at Woodward and the outdoor Windmill Museum in Shattuck. For Davidson, the trail is a labor of love as well as a business. Davidson lives in the Texas panhandle town of Miami--with 587 other people, by the last census count--and sees the trails as a way to help the tiny towns cope with demographic and economic trends that are threatening their futures. "Rural is near and dear to my heart and there's a greater awareness on the part of the rural areas they can also benefit from promoting what's outside," he said. What they have to attract tourists is a snapshot of an America that's reapidly disappearing. Rural western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle "have the resources, which is primarily in the rural towns," he said. In addition to providing some income for the communities along the trail, he's hoping it will increase the number of people interested in vintage windmills and spur public interest in renewable energy. The $35,000 project is being funded by a number of partners, large and small, from Lubbock to Spearman, Texas. That will pay for a Web site (http://www.windpowertrail.com), a map, an audio CD and--perhaps in May--some media trips for publicity. On Tuesday, he was in Lawton to visit with Debra Burch, director of tourism development for the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and to visit Blue Canyon. He was accompanied by representatives from Western Farmers Electric Cooperative in Anadarko, which is buying power from Blue Canyon. Western Farmers became involved at the request of the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation; Western Farmers approached the local electric co-ops to run the idea by them and signed on. Western Farmers had known for a while that the site has tourism potential. "I have never been there that somebody doesn't pull off the side of the road and take pictures," said Carl Liles, directory of enterprise management for Western Farmers. "It's an incredible tourism product," Davidson said. He doesn't expect many visitors to take the entire trail, but the publicity will help some of the towns--and nearby attracttions that can be marketed along with the wind trail Scott Williams of Western Farmers is ready to get to work. Linemen will be taking note of vintage windmills in the area. They won't have to look far--there's a rugged survivior just north of Blue Canyon, presenting the juxtaposition of old and new that the trail is designed to showcase. Davidson is visiting Lawton and other large towns to tap into their tourism efforts, such as the Discoverty Trail program that encourages Lawtonians and guests to visit local areas of interest. The larger towns can provide amenities and more diverse entertainment and attractions, Davidson said, making it more likely that groups will find something along the trail that they're interested in. "There's a real nice interplay between the resources both have," he said. PO Box 481, Miami, Texas, 79059 |