The Only Monument in Town: the Diamond Bar Windmill

From 1918 to 1957, herds of horses and cattle were dependent on power from the windmill that now stands at the Ralph's Center near the intersection of Diamond Bar Boulevard and Grand Avenue.

Now, the city of Diamond Bar is dependent on the structure as its only lasting historical landmark. 

At a study session last week, the council and city staff again entered discussion about how to secure the site that is not owned by the city to ensure the preservation of the monument for future years.

But the preservation efforts go back to decades ago. 

In 100 years, the structure has moved only about 200 yards from its original location, where it served the livestock of the Diamond Bar Ranch with power to grind grain and pump water to other parts of the property.

During a 2005 rededication of the Diamond Bar Ranch windmill, the son of the ranch's owner, Bill Bartholome, remembered early life on the land, which was then marked by few manmade structures.

"I was able to tell my mom I was going to be back by dark and go ride the ranch with my horse," Bartholme said, according to an article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune covering that event. "We would hunt and fish, and we had ducks and geese fly in."

Growing up in the 1950s, Bartholome's childhood backyard was one of the largest working cattle ranches in the United States. Except in the season of rain, the rolling topography was golden, with stands of trees limited mostly to creek sides.

Using the power of a windmill to move water to higher elevations was the cheapest method of irrigation then, but the power plant became obsolete as the cattle were replaced by people.

Still, well after the first housing developments were built in Diamond Bar, the windmill remained a fixture of the area.

In 1977, Edda Gahm and her late husband Harold moved into a single story pool home with a backyard overlooking Diamond Bar Boulevard near.

Gahm remembers the dirt median, which served as the unofficial horse trail for kids to ride their horses up from what was then a private equestrian development, The Country Estates.

One day, a neighbor’s visitor carelessly tethered her mount to the Gahm’s gate. The horse moseyed over, helping itself to a luscious treat of their herbaceous dichondra lawn.

At that time, the view across the boulevard was of two pristine canyons. Edda remembers watching cowboys at work when “on occasion there would be a break in the fence and the cattle had to be rounded up before crossing (into the neighborhood)."

Residents Joe and Lois McManus said the "windmill was originally located in the middle of a field when we first moved to Diamond Bar (in 1978)."

In this spring of 2011, it is easy to drive past the fan-topped tower painted in rusty red, without taking notice. The Country Towne Center entry signage, a colorful quilt patched with the names of businesses there, curtains off the space between traffic and the windmill's base.

A pair of maturing sycamores and a liquidambar tree fight with the 8-foot fan blades for open air.

As development continued to spread, then-Vice President of the Diamond Bar Development Company, Don Ury, worked to relocate the windmill to preserve it, according to City Council Member Jack Tanaka and Historical Society Chairman John Forbing.

"Don carefully tipped the windmill into a truck, moving the tower on its side across the street (near the current Fitness Advantage)," Forbing said.

When the shopping center was complete, Forbing added, "the windmill was welded and reinforced before it was relocated more appropriately to the entrance on Diamond Bar Boulevard, nearest Grand Avenue."

The McManuses remember the relocation of the windmill, where it stood across the street from The Edit Shop and received noise complaints from neighboring businesses and residents.

"(The windmill) did make a lot of creaking noise," Lois McManus said, "so Joe tried to see if oil would make it more acceptable to all those who complained about it."

Lois recalls the Windmill "remained locked down for quite some time."

“We would look at it from the Edit Shop's window and feel sad that the ‘mascot’ of Diamond Bar no longer worked," Lois said, "so Joe started the process to get it moving again."

The original Diamond Bar rancher’s home had long since lost a battle with termites, but the windmill was still standing.

It wasn't until 2001 when Jack Tanaka, a current city council member, and his wife Wanda began researching the windmill and began efforts to make the site a historical monument for the city.

“This is something symbolizing Diamond Bar and it should be preserved,“ Jack said.

By 2003, the collaboration between the Historic Society and the local Lions Club, with which the Tanakas are closely involved, was on track to mark the city’s first historic monument.

On private property, sanctioning was not just an issue of government but also of negotiations with the property owner, and supporters also faced the challenge of finding a qualified contractor willing to take on the small project.

Rotarian Shirley Pozzuoli acquired the help of her husband and contractor Frank, Jack said, who donated his time and materials for the structural portion of the monument, making the fundraising for the plaque easier after a request to have both sides of the monument faced in bronze doubled the initially expected cost.

Ultimately, in late January of 2005, the Diamond Bar Breakfast Lions Club and Diamond Bar Historical Society presented the community with its first historic monument. The cement plinth, which displays the plaques, stands centered below the windmill.

Interested pedestrians can now amble to the opposite side of the monument to study the ownership timeline of the land the windmill still watches over, from Shoshone Indians through incorporation of Diamond Bar.

Lois McManus, now retired with her husband Joe in Oregon, said she hopes above all that the windmill is "still happily, and quietly, turning.”