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Last year, distracted by the end of the world as we knew it, we passed up a perfect chance for controversy. With our usual Iowa courtesy and reticence, we allowed something to happen that would have been good for months of squabbling and protests in some parts of the nation.

Now it’s too late. The thing that could have been questioned already exists: A major wind farm is spinning away about 30 miles northeast of Des Moines as the wind blows. Right there on an expanse of unassuming farmland between Colo and Zearing, 100 wind turbines have blossomed.

They’re comfortably spread out over 16,000 acres – if there’s one thing rural Iowa has, it’s elbow room – and about 60 landowners are happily collecting lease money for the tower sites and connecting roads.

The general public will benefit, too. Story County doesn’t get a dime in property tax money from the project this year, but that changes starting in 2010, and by 2015 the county will be pulling in more than $1 million every year. The current arrangement keeps that money flowing through 2028, and everyone seems to assume that another good deal will follow this one. This array is called “the first phase,” with more towers to come some day.

An extra million bucks a year should come in handy in a county that collects about $16 million in property taxes annually. Prediction: The Colo-Nesco Community School District will be the home of cutting-edge software and excellent athletic equipment.

That’s the money part of this. As for the power, a renewable-energy Web site reports: “At its maximum capacity, the facility will be capable of generating enough electricity for approximately 37,500 average-size homes.”

A distant utility company, Florida Power and Light Co., built the farm. Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) of Cedar Rapids has a 10-year contract to buy electricity from the turbines, according to Dusky Terry, company spokesman and former candidate for Iowa secretary of agriculture.

“It’s not a tax credit situation for us; there are no financial incentives involved,” Terry said. “It just makes sense to diversify our portfolio and not be overly dependent on any one resource.”

CIPCO is one of six power cooperatives involved, some as far away as North Carolina.

It all sounds wonderful, but where’s the controversy? Isn’t the public supposed to get upset about the way a wind farm looks?

Some such proposals have generated protests because they might affect property values, but corn and soybeans probably grow just as well with blades turning overhead. For all we know, the vibration gives corn borers headaches.

And people who live on an oceanfront go ballistic when wind turbines are mentioned, because they don’t want anything out there spoiling the view. (This brings up the vital but never-asked question of why a flat, unchanging ocean view is prized, but a view of flat land, nicely varying with the seasons, is disparaged. Let’s form a committee to change people’s minds about that. A serious committee. Well-dressed people with BlackBerrys.)

Personally, I think the towers look kind of cool, marching off into the distance. I grew up nearby and stared at that land many times while my parents took us over to Colo to eat at Niland’s Cafe, or up to Dick Sparrow’s farm near Zearing to watch him work with his 40-horse hitch.

An array of white whirligigs dresses up the neighborhood like Orion improves the night sky. If Christo had done this, it would be considered art.

So think of it as a tourist attraction and go take a look. Then stimulate the Colo economy by stopping for a meal at Niland’s, which closed for a while – a decade or so – but reopened looking like a 1950s diner.

It isn’t often you can wallow in nostalgia and see the future all in one spot.