Get Your Goat

After looking at the huge Roman tread wheel crane, some people on tour have asked about the little crane on the West Tower.  It is what the French in the Middle Ages called a “goat” and I have no idea when that started.  In fact, after looking into it, it appears that no one knows when or who started the combination of rope, pulley, single boom crane and primitive windless that you see at the Ozark Medieval Fortress.  It is definitely an old idea from old Northern France and Germany that is so practical.  The boom is adjustable to reach out over the wall and, unlike the tread wheel crane, can traverse to the side.  It is definitely a lot easier to build and move! 

If you look closely, you see that it is a four legged beast like a goat and the windless winch is built into the framework, all from natural material.  A handle on either side of the cross-log makes the simple windless.  A rope goes directly from a rock or log to be lifted to the crane’s pulley and either pulled by human hand or turned on the windless for extra lift or control.  People in the Medieval times were not as primitive and backward as we sometimes think. Like our American colonists, they were practical.  You can see this practicality in the goat.