Research by the Balikesir Culture Center has located 37 windmills in
the Balikesir area, of which one is still operated, by Alparslan Ayral
a former Balikesir mayor), in the village of Karakol (Camlik). The mill
is officially registered by the Bursa Council for the Preservation of
Historical Objects, but over the past 20 years many windmills have still
been destroyed despite being designated for preservation. There is still
much indifferent to their fate, but some full sized replicas have been
built in recent years, in an attempt to preserve this cultural inheritance.