Grinders from Hillsboro's C.S. Bell Company on display at Colombia sugar cane factory

David Horner recently went on a tour of a sugar cane farm and museum near Cali, Colombia and reached out to The Highland County Press after noticing a grinder that was made by the C.S. Bell Company in Hillsboro. The C.S. Bell Company was established in Hillsboro in 1858 by Charles Singleton “C.S.” Bell. The company was a landmark business in Hillsboro for generations. (For more on the company, go to https://highlandcountypress.com/steve-roush/beginning-cs-bell-co-hillsb…)

"The tour makes various stops to show the evolution of sugar cane processing," Horner said. "At one of the stops, there’s an historic grinder made in Hillsboro by the C.S. Bell Company. I tried reaching out to the C.S. Bell Company, but my emails keep getting denied and it looks like they moved on to Tiffin."

According to the Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia website (https://travel.valledelcauca.gov.co/sitio/museo-de-la-cana-de-azucar), The sugar cane museum is located in El Cerrito, a municipality located in the Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia. This is one of the 42 municipalities of the department. The town is known for having within its jurisdiction the hacienda "El Paraíso," where the writer Jorge Isaacs lived and set his novel "María." Part of its territory also belongs to the Parque Nacional Natural Las Hermosas. 

The Museo de la Caña de Azúcar (Sugar Cane Museum) is a place charged with the positive energy that nature transmits. It is a space to get in touch with it and learn about the customs and practices around the cultivation of sugarcane and its processing. The properties of the sugar cane mix with the museum’s air, translating into a sweet breeze that filters through all the corners of the place, generating a pleasant sensation of freshness to its visitors, who can choose to do the guided tours and, after that, admire in more detail the landscape and architectural beauty of the Hacienda Piedechinche.

The Hacienda is located in the village of Santa Elena (El Cerrito), and consists of an 18th century colonial house that preserves the atmosphere and utensils of the time. The museum, in addition to offering a historic tour throughout the house, offers the spectators hikes to the surrounding, where the so-called trapiches (colonial structures used for processing sugar cane) are displayed and an exhibition of colonial transportation. Furthermore, the museum has a restaurant capable to host a large groups of people.

For more information visit: http://www.museocanadeazucar.com/