Village of Edam, Saskatchewan

Windmill Designer: John Palenstein

When Built: 1980 Dimensions: Height: 22 Feet (6.7 Metres) Width: 8 Feet (2.4 Metres) Construction Materials: Cedar shingles and brick veneer (exterior) Location: Southwest side of the Village, East side of Highway #26 Across from the Lions Washbrook Museum.

Reason for Building:

To commemorate the Dutch settlers that originally settled here in the early 1900's. Also as a point of interest stop on Highway #26.

Additional Information:

Edam's slogan is "A Little Bit of Holland in Saskatchewan"

Mr. Palenstein was a local resident who now resides in Coquitlam, B.C. where he is now practicing architecture in New Westminster. His grandparents were amongst the first Dutch settlers who founded the town.

Apparently, when the idea of the project came up, John offered to design the windmill, which he did from a postcard image. It is designed to scale, and could have been made functional with a little extra engineering.

The Village was kind enough to provide me a schematic drawing of the windmill as well as this postcard:

The Trans Canada Trail's alternate Saskatchewan route directly passes the windmill. The local TransCanada Trail committee has erected a Marker at the Windmill, commemorating the local donors. Two plaques reads:
"This cairn Erected as a Saskatchewan Hertige Project in 1985 by the people of Edam and District and the Government of Saskatchewan."
"This windmill was erected by the people of Edam and District to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Province of Saskatchewan and to honour the original Dutch settlers, some from Edam, Holland who homesteaded in this area. During the period 1904 - 1906 and who also named the Village of Edam in memory of their hometown of Edam, Holland June 1980"

The Windmill site is decorated with a Christmas Light display each year by the Edam Board of Trade, as shown by this photo provided by Larry LaClare:

Information Source: Larry LaClare, Michael Tymchak and Village of Edam

Picture Source: DMY, Larry LaClare, and the Village of Edam