Serpon Sugar Mill is an historical site in

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

, consisting of the remnants of a

steam-powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...

sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw sugar or plantation white sugar. Some sugar mills are situated next to a back-end refinery, that turns raw sugar into (refined) white sugar. The term is also used to refer ...

whose construction in 1865 marked the beginning of the country's industrial era. It is located near the village of

Sittee River Sittee River is a river in Belize. It is also the name of a village along the river. River Located in central Belize, the mangroves located at the mouth of this river are the tallest ever reported for the Caribbean region and among the tallest an ...

in the Stann Creek district. The cultivation of

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

was introduced to Belize, before becoming a

British colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by England, and then Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English and later British Empire. There was usually a governor to represent the Crown, appointed by the British monarch on ...

, in 1848 by the

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

and

Mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

refugees fleeing from the

Caste War A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

in the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

. After the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

in 1865, American immigrants from the southern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

invested heavily in sugar plantations and small sugar mills throughout southern Belize. Serpon Estate was bought by a Scottish man named William Bowman. In 1863, Bowman and the owners of another estate, Regalia, began construction on two steam-powered mills, marking the arrival of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

in Belize. Parts of the sugar mill at Serpon were manufactured by Stewart and Company in Glasgow, and it's

crusher A crusher is a machine designed to reduce large rocks into smaller rocks, gravel, sand or rock dust. Crushers may be used to reduce the size, or change the form, of waste materials so they can be more easily disposed of or recycled, or to reduce ...

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead Beam (structure), beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used b ...

and furnace were all powered by steam. During its peak, it is estimated that the Serpon sugar mill was producing and shipping over 770 kilograms of sugar a month. This and the output from the Regalia mill is said to have fuelled Belize's

economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

for about 30 years. By the start of the 20th century, however, sugar production was found to be more profitable in the Corozal and

Orange Walk Orange walks, or Orange marches, are a series of parades by members of the Orange Order and other Protestantism, Protestant Fraternal organization, fraternal societies, held during the summer months in various Commonwealth of Nations, Commonw ...

districts, which led to the abandonment of the Serpon and Regalia mills in 1910. In 2009, the ruins of the Serpon Sugar Mill were designated an archaeological reserve.

References

External links

* {{coord, 16.82592, -88.34425, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:BZ, display=title Archaeological sites in Belize History of British Honduras Sugar refineries Protected areas of Belize Sugar industry of Belize