Forty stories tall, with twirling arms as long as several semis, at least 243 wind towers would be scattered over 50 square miles in what the wind industry says will be the most productive land-based wind farm on Earth. Farmers who toil to make $50,000 in a good year could rent their land to developers and add half that much--guaranteed--by watching the wind blow.

Elsewhere in Illinois, wind projects far less daunting have met stiff opposition. But not here in McLean County, where towns have been dying, shops closing, schools shuttering, population falling and farming fading.

In Ellsworth, located a 25-minute drive east of Bloomington, Ill., a town patriarch meets regularly with wind developers over steaks and baked potatoes while hashing out annual compensation over 30 years for neighbors and farmers. McLean County zoning officials, anticipating a $1 million tax windfall annually, are mindful of the developers' every need.

And where hardly a vehicle can be seen on Main Street for hours at a time, locals are dreaming of a stream of tourists diverting off nearby Interstate Highways 57 and 55 to gawk at the towers.

Maybe a restaurant will open in Ellsworth--the first one in years, they hope. Or a bar, a fancy coffee shop or a souvenir stand selling items promoting Ellsworth as America's newest wind Mecca.

"We see nothing but good things coming from this," said Jay Smithson, the village president. "After all these years of hardship, we're blessed, just richly blessed. ... Who would have ever thought a dying place would be saved by the wind?"

What is planned for this wide expanse of corn and soybean farms dwarfs most wind developments in scope and height and sets a staggering standard as the Midwest embraces alternative energy ideas.

Zilkha Renewable Energy of Houston plans a $500 million wind development, to be completed in the summer of 2007. It will include 243 of the 40-story-tall structures. Chicago, by comparison, has 152 buildings at least that tall, with five more under construction, according to a Tribune survey.

It would harness enough wind energy to power an estimated 120,000 Chicago-area homes. With an output of 400 megawatts, it would outpower a 300 megawatt project in California that is now the nation's biggest.

The highest things for miles around Ellsworth are a few grain elevators, some cellular telephone stations and a handful of water towers--all less than 10 stories tall.

"It's like dropping in a city-style skyline in the middle of emptiness," said Sally Chappell, an emeritus professor of architectural history at DePaul University who has written on rural landscape issues. "Height and scope mean everything, and in this case it's way off the charts."

Illinois' largest wind project to date has 63 wind towers along Interstate Highway 39 in northern Illinois. They are about two-thirds as tall as the ones proposed here.

Wind power is the darling of environmentalists and legislators. In his State of the State speech, Gov. Rod Blagojevich vowed to have nearly a quarter of Illinois' 4.6 million households powered by renewable energy--mostly wind-generated--by 2010.

A study released last week by the University of Illinois at Chicago that was commissioned by the governor's office predicted renewable energy would bring $7 billion in economic generation and 7,800 jobs by 2012. The impact of the Ellsworth project was factored into that study by UIC's Energy Resources Center.

Throughout Illinois and the Midwest, though, wind farms have encountered vehement opposition, mostly from those living in their shadows. Opponents see them as an intrusive blight on the landscape that diminishes their property values and invades their privacy. They also complain about noise and glare.

In DeKalb County, residents waged a legal fight in 2003 and claimed victory after a Florida energy company decided to scrap its project.

A few miles away in Lee County, where the 63 wind towers are operating, people still complain about the disruption from construction two years ago and bristle about the sight intrusions.

Just south of Lee County, a Bureau County resident took his battle against another wind developer to the state Supreme Court, but the court declined to hear the case. Robert Bittner, a computer consultant, said he has given up battling wind towers.

`Accept their fate'

"It's futile to fight them," said Bittner, who looks at the wind towers from his home-office window. "The state is behind it. The federal government is behind it. The environmentalists are behind it. Those people [in Ellsworth] might as well just accept their fate."

Many in Ellsworth admit they are wide-eyed over the economic benefits.

"It sure sounds scary," said Phil Dick, McLean County's director of building and zoning. "But we're kind of OK with the size because it will bring so many benefits."

Zilkha still needs formal zoning approval pending a public hearing scheduled for July 5, Dick said, but many of the issues, from height to locations, have already been settled.

Increasingly, rural Illinois counties in need of economic infusion--such as Marshall County--are easing requirements for wind developers and making it easier for towers to be built. In most cases, county zoning officials are the sole government watchdog over wind tower approvals.

With some $3 billion in incentives and tax revenues expected to be dangled before Illinois counties by wind developers, the lure is irresistible.

"It offers economic hope to places that really need it," said Barry Matchett, a policy advocate and wind energy proponent for the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago. "And that is a good thing."

Until the wind developers came to town, hardly a stranger ever visited Ellsworth, population 271.

In November 2001, Bill Whitlock, Zilkha's point man in Illinois, came rolling through town looking for a place where the winds blow. He stood at a barren intersection and was pounded by the howling gusts. He looked across the flat land and marveled at the swirling dust.

"I knew I had found the perfect place," Whitlock said.

Tests later confirmed this part of Illinois rivaled Denmark for its wind consistency.

"We always said if we could just figure out something to do with the wind, we'd all be rich," said Jack Doyle, 76, who for three decades has run the family's auto repair garage, one of just two businesses remaining here.

With energy-needy Chicago about 130 miles away, Zilkha began negotiating to send the energy to the metro Chicago area via transmission lines. Those negotiations are now in their final stages, Whitlock said.

To mitigate local opposition, Zilkha hired an archeologist to comb the area for historic sites and found few. They scoured the plains for any signs of the endangered Slippershell mussel and found none; they looked for major migrating bird paths and found none.

Developer seeks support

Armed with a promotional video, Whitlock courted farmers and residents. Zilkha rented a bus and took locals to northern Iowa where the company runs another, far smaller, wind farm.

Zilkha seems to have a proposal to confront every obstacle.

If the towers impede television reception, Zilkha will either arrange for subsidized cable service or build switches to relay television signals. The company will repave roads after construction that will involve hundreds of big rigs, several monstrous cranes and numerous rigging crews.

"These are not just some environmentalists wearing tin hats and promoting wind use," Matchett said. "They are professional businessmen who have done their homework."

To placate residents who will live near the tall towers, Zilkha promises monetary compensation for their sight disruptions. Farmers who agree to have towers on their land will at first receive $5,000 a year. With 30-year leases that include an annual escalation clause, farmers envision working less and letting the wind make money for them.

"It's great retirement income," said Dennis Cradduck, a Lee County farmer who has nine wind towers on his land and is promoting wind energy throughout the state.

After 30 years of farming, Cradduck has decided to live off his wind energy leases and rent the family farmland.

"They pay a steady income, and you don't have to get up before dawn," he said.

Noise and property values

But farmer Elroy Swope, who has four towers on his Lee County land, says there are pitfalls. He resents the noises and the interruption. He now figures that his land value will decrease by as much as $200,000 over the 30 years because the towers will be seen as a nuisance for buyers.

"Everything you hear is so positive about them, but nothing negative ever gets out," he said.

"And if they go bankrupt or something in the next 10 years, I will be in sad shape. Who the hell is going to take them down then?"

But, Doyle, 76, said benefits far outweigh potential negatives.

He remembers the days when he had two dozen donuts and two pots of coffee ready for the many residents who came by his repair shop every morning. These days it's down to just a few donuts and a half pot of coffee.

Doyle feels the breeze and sees resurrection in the wind as he drives his Cadillac over rural roads.

He figures by next summer he'll need many more pots of coffee and plenty of donuts for the construction workers.

"I just can't wait," he said. "I hope I don't die before I can see it all go up. Imagine all these towers. ... It'll make us famous."