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Despite writing about wind nearly every week, I had never visited a wind farm until today.

I’m currently in Union County interviewing locals about wind farms. In 2007, Horizon Wind Energy developed a 64-turbine wind farm, Elkhorn Valley, along the ridges of Pyles Canyon. Now, Horizon is looking to add up to 164 new turbines in Union County’s valley, a project called Antelope Ridge. Opinions on whether wind is a good fit for Union County vary widely, so I had to see one of these developments for myself.

Hearing about a 500-foot-tall wind turbine is one thing. Craning your neck against the morning sun to try and see the top of one of these giants is another. At Elkhorn, I was completely blown away by the sheer enormity of these machines, as well as the noise they make: not much. I’d compare it to hearing an airplane far off in the distance on a windy day.

Though the turbines are fairly self sufficient and outfitted with the latest in wind seeking electronics, 15 employees go to work each day at Elkhorn to keep things running smoothly. Horizon employs three people there while Vestas, the turbine manufacturer, employs 12. Everyone is from Oregon, and most are from Union County itself.

At the base of each turbine is a door leading into the belly of the wind beast. Once inside, a dizzying 500-foot ladder climb brings workers up to the top of the wind turbine, where they can even crawl into the depths of the turbine’s blades to perform maintenance. The entire turbine fleet can be controlled wirelessly, so if the development needs to go offline for any reason, operations managers can do so from afar.

The turbines haven’t scared off the wildlife. Birds still fly over the rocky hills near Elkhorn, and the operations manager there said that elk can be seen resting in the shade of the turbines.

Whatever one’s opinion of wind energy is, it’s hard not to be impressed by these machines and the people that work to keep them running.