Enhanced photo of wind turbine taken during the blue hour, July 27, 2026, near Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX. Photo by Steve Bublitz

By DOUG KIRBY
Publisher
Roadside America

100 truckloads of parts were needed just to assemble the crane to raise this rotating titan, which tops out at 653.5 feet above the flat West Texas Wind Corridor (Most wind turbines rise less than 500 feet). It’s as if you took the Gateway Arch in St. Louis — the tallest monument in the U.S. — and stood it in the middle of the Texas Prairie. Except that the Turbine is even taller.

The GW 3S Prototype (its official name) began spinning in May 2018, part of the UL Advanced Wind Turbine Test Facility at West Texas A&M University. Unlike most turbines, which are clustered in wind farms, this one stands alone. 80 cement mixers worth of concrete were needed to anchor it, part of a lengthy list of superlatives involved with its construction. Visitors can’t climb it, but they can look at it, and to take a photo of all of it you’ll have to stand about a half-mile away.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/61795

Article is credited to RoadsideAmerica.com and shared with permission. Doug Kirby,  Publisher,  Roadside America website/iPhone app