LANGDON (AP) - Beleaguered Cavalier County literally has the wind at its back.

The northern-border county has experienced a population drain since 1960. But 2007 has brought hope - in the form of the state's largest wind farm - that the population leak can be plugged.

For long-term jobs, the 106-turbine Langdon Wind Energy Center won't be the boom that the antiballistic missile site brought in the early 1970s. But it won't be something else, either - the bust that quickly followed that boom.

"We're happy the wind farm coincided with a good year in agriculture, too," said Carol Goodman, the county's economic development director. "We know that there will be corrections in agriculture earnings.

"But it's nice to know the benefits from the wind farm will be here for a long, long time."

The benefits will last a minimum of 25 years, the length of the lease with landowners to place the turbines on their land.

After construction is complete, jobs likely will number only 12. But the influx of money will continue.

The $250 million construction project should be done in late December. Florida-based FPL Energy recently received approval to build another 27 turbines next year. That expansion represents an additional $73 million investment.

The short-term economic benefits come from the project's 200-plus jobs and the goods and services purchased locally.

Some workers travel from as far away as Grand Forks. Motels and every rent-worthy property are occupied. Restaurants, grocery stores and service businesses are bustling.

Local farmer Keith Lorenz said N.D. Highway 66, home to the construction headquarters and center of the project, "looks like I-29."

"If nothing else, it's so exciting to see all this activity again," Goodman said.

Lorenz has five towers on his land. He will receive $3,900 for each one in the first year, or $19,500 total. The rent increases 2 percent each year of the 25-year lease.

"It would be tough to make money any easier than that," he said. "That's nice security."

There is a cost to the landowners. Between the turbine and the road leading to it, each site takes 1 to 1.5 acres of farmland. More worrisome is how it might affect farm operations.

"The flip side is that I like my land and don't like to see it messed up," Lorenz said. "I'm worried about the road stopping water drainage. Hopefully, the road level will be the same height as the field to allow drainage.

"We work our whole life around here to get rid of water. I'll know more how I like it next spring when I see how many puddles it creates," he said.

About 45 landowners have turbines in the project area, which measures 10 miles north to south and five miles east to west.

With 106 turbines, leases will attract more than $400,000 in payments the first year alone. With the 27 to be added in 2008, the amount exceeds $500,000. Unlike pipeline projects that have one-time payments up front, rents come every year.

"That lease money is a huge deal, especially when you use the multiplier effect of four," Goodman said. "And the property taxes will be a nice shot in the arm, too."

With the 27-unit addition, annual property taxes will approach $600,000, according to the North Dakota Public Service Commission .

"Just think of what $250,000 or more a year is going to do for our school," said Lorenz, whose wife, Kathy, is a teacher in the system. "It also should lower the mills others will have to pay."

Landowners also receive one-time payments for underground cables between the turbines and for overhead transmission lines. Minnkota Power Cooperative and Otter Tail Power Co. are combining for a $10 million upgrade of 35 miles of transmission lines.

Lorenz said a meteorological tower to gather wind data also is being built on his land. "A worker said they're looking at putting up another 38 towers in that area," he said.

Official word of 27 more turbines in 2008 and unofficial word of another 38 is why locals are hopeful the project can bring stability.

"I've heard that this could be a 400-turbine wind farm some day," Lorenz said.

Wind energy is fairly new. "If you've been in it for 10 years, you're a pioneer," said Dick Rausch, FPL Energy construction manager.

And the wind energy explosion is very new. "President Bush didn't even use the phrase 'renewable energy' in his State of the Union address until 2006," Goodman said.

Cavalier County was ahead of the president. The county's economic development board took local resident Hans Reinhardt's advice in the spring of 2005 to pursue a wind farm. Locals knew the landscape was windy but needed data to prove it. So, the county split the $20,000 cost of a wind-monitoring tower with the state Department of Commerce.

"That was a big decision because the $10,000 was one-fifth of our entire yearly budget," Goodman said.

The entire county's population is 4,099, according to 2006 census estimates. The county lost 40 percent of its population between the 1980 and 2000 censuses, and estimates say it's lost another 15 percent since 2000.

The wind farm should help turn that around - beyond the construction boom, beyond the dozen permanent jobs and beyond the annual $1 million in lease payments and property taxes.