The busload of MHAers are smiling as we head off for another MHA conference tour.

Historic Hammel Brewery Museum

Socorro County Historical Society, Inc.

(Above and Right) The first stop on the tour was the Hammel Museum located in the historic Hammel Brewery building in Socorro. The brewery was started in the 1880s’s by William and Gustav Hammel, members of a brewing family from Illinois.  It was probably much appreciated by the hundreds of thirsty miners who were in the area.

The father, Jacob Hammel, joined his sons in 1887 and the name was changed to the Illinois Brewing Company. 

The MHAers viewed the varied displays the portray Socorro County’s mining, agricultural, railroading, and ranching past.

(Above and Right) Refrigeration equipment was necessary for making beer in the New Mexico desert.  The plant adjacent to the brewery also made ice another rare commodity in the southwest at the time.