The Old Mill (Ruidoso, New Mexico) | historic landmark

 mill, historic landmark

The Old Mill aka Dowlin Mill or Dowlin's Mill.

The mill, built in 1855, is Ruidoso’s oldest building, was built by Paul Dowlin, a Civil War veteran and retired Army captain who served at nearby Fort Stanton. It was his second attempt in the mill business. The first mill, built at the junction of Ruidoso River and Carrizo Creek, was swept away by heavy rains just a few weeks after its completion.

Dowlin and his brother William salvaged what they could from the ruined mill and rebuilt on higher ground. Safety came at a price; now it was difficult to divert enough water to operate the mill. The brothers built a three-mile long flume system - V-shaped wooden troughs, supported by long poles and tree branches, that carried the water to the mill.

Dowlin met his doom, May 5, 1877, by one of his very own former employees. Jerry Dillon shot an unarmed Dowlin for reasons unknown. Dillon left for Texas never to be heard from again.

The building was abandoned and nearly in ruins when Carmon Phillips bought it in 1949. He hired a local man to make new adobe bricks and rebuild the back wall. The outside of the building is plastered but the interior whitewashed walls show the texture of the adobe.

The great wheel, its shaft broken, was rotted and sunk into the ground. Phillips salvaged pieces of redwood from a water tank at an abandoned gold mine and used them to rebuild the wheel.

He opened a gift shop in the historic building, whose cool interior provides a welcome escape from the summer heat. Visitors can watch the millstones grind corn meal and wheat flour, which are sold in paper sacks with printed recipes attached.

Phillips died in 1999 but his daughter, actress Delana Michaels, continues to welcome visitors and share stories of “days gone by.”

It is rumored that Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett both spent time at the Dowlin Mill. It is said that the Kid once hid in a flour barrel to escape capture.

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