The Orchard, Mills Canyon ~ Mills, New Mexico
Harvested produce was washed, stored & cooled in the small rock building on the floodplain below. The produce was hauled out of the canyon by wagon & sold to the communities in the surrounding area.
The wagon road roughly follows Forest Road 600 & was extremely slow-going as well as dangerous to man & animal. To speed the process, Mills attempted to haul the produce to the rim by way of cable with a lift bucket, He reluctantly agreed not to ride to the top with the first load; Mills narrowly escaped death as a cable failed & the bucket came crashing down the canyon.
One the floodplain below are the remnants of the Mills Canyon Enterprise, Established in 1881 by Melvin Mills, an influential attorney & political figure in New Mexico. The orchard covered hundreds of acres along the Canadian River. Thousands of fruit trees produced tons of peaches, pears, apples, plums, apricots, cherries, walnuts, chestnuts, & almonds.
In the fall of 1904 the Rio Grande, & Candian Rivers flooded. Agricultural fields & even some small towns were destroyed. The Mills Canyon Enterprise was one of the casualties. Effort to make it profitable again failed & the last harvest was in 1912.
The Orchard, Mills Canyon ~ Mills, New Mexico
Harvested produce was washed, stored & cooled in the small rock building on the floodplain below. The produce was hauled out of the canyon by wagon & sold to the communities in the surrounding area.
The wagon road roughly follows Forest Road 600 & was extremely slow-going as well as dangerous to man & animal. To speed the process, Mills attempted to haul the produce to the rim by way of cable with a lift bucket, He reluctantly agreed not to ride to the top with the first load; Mills narrowly escaped death as a cable failed & the bucket came crashing down the canyon.
One the floodplain below are the remnants of the Mills Canyon Enterprise, Established in 1881 by Melvin Mills, an influential attorney & political figure in New Mexico. The orchard covered hundreds of acres along the Canadian River. Thousands of fruit trees produced tons of peaches, pears, apples, plums, apricots, cherries, walnuts, chestnuts, & almonds.
In the fall of 1904 the Rio Grande, & Candian Rivers flooded. Agricultural fields & even some small towns were destroyed. The Mills Canyon Enterprise was one of the casualties. Effort to make it profitable again failed & the last harvest was in 1912.