The Cleveland Roller Mill Museum

Cleveland Roller Mill Museum, Cleveland, NM USA

Cleveland Roller Mill Museum Benefit Dance - Aug 12, 2023 7pm
Pot Luck for Dance 5pm, bring your favorite dish

2022 and 2023 have been difficult years for San Miguel and Mora counties. On April 6, 2022, a prescribed burn was started by the US Forest Service about 12 miles NW of Las Vegas near the base of Hermits Peak. By late afternoon the fire escaped containment and was declared a wildfire. This fire was named the Hermits Peak fire. Almost 2 weeks later, on April 19, 2022, a US Forest Service pile burn holdover fire from January reemerged as a new fire named the Calf Canyon fire. The two fires merged and burned towards the Pecos wilderness, Las Vegas and north toward Mora county. High winds combined with extremely dry conditions led to the fire growing rapidly, especially in a northerly direction towards Mora and Cleveland. In late April evacuation notices were enacted and residents of the Mora and Cleveland areas were forced to evacuate along with roads in and out of town being closed. For several weeks these residents were unable to visit their homes and businesses, often not knowing whether the rapidly expanding fire had burned their homes and businesses. The roads in and out of Mora finally opened up from Las Vegas about May 18 and displaced residents were able to get back into their home areas. For some, the news was good, their homes had survived. For others, their homes were burned, many beyond repair. Fortunately, the Cleveland Roller Mill was preserved. There are burns nearby but much of Mora and Cleveland were on the edge of the fire but were thankfully undamaged. On the drive from Las Vegas to Cleveland you can see evidence of the fire, sometimes all the way up to the road, but there are many areas that are still in good shape.

Location: Cleveland Roller Mill Museum, highway 518 - mile marker 31 in Cleveland, NM (2 miles NW of Mora)

The Dance starts with an evening Potluck. Leftovers from the Dance Potluck are served for breakfast on Sunday morning. For those traveling from out of town the lawn can be used to set up a tent overnight.

The band sets up on the 2nd floor, most dancers dance inside but an optional dance floor is outside the back door.

The outside dance floor gives people the opportunity to spread out and enjoy the cool temperatures.

During the dance dancers have the opportunity to explore the Cleveland Roller Mill machinery and read about the interesting history.

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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