Online Tour
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When today's visitors drive up to the
museum, some are disappointed because there is no visual evidence
of a water wheel at first glance. Little do they know that just
out of sight from their vehicle on the east corner of the building,
is an 18 foot 6 inch massive cast iron wheel originally purchased
in the late 1800s. Once a year on the Saturday and Sunday of
the Labor Day weekend, visitors can watch as water once again
flows over the massive wheel to power the original machines inside
during Millfest weekend (see banner below). |
| The main gear inside the mill is attached
to the waterwheel and provides power for numerous pulleys and
belts that drove the mill's machinery. This gear is taller
then the average person and is made of cast iron. When
the mill was built at the end of the 19th century, the machines,
gears, and other equipment was brought into Las Vegas, New Mexico
by train and then transported by wagon to the mill site in the
Mora Valley. Today, in our modern automobiles, a trip between
these places is only about thirty minutes or so, back then the
journey by wagon was an all day affair. |
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From the beginning of time, flour milling
involved the use of two stones to crush grain, but in the latter
part of the 1800s, the technology of cold steel made it possible
to develop rolls that would accomplish the task in a much more
efficient manner. This roll stand contains two sets of
rolls and the mill has a total of four roll stands. |
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Valley Foundation
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