Longmont Sugar Factory

Longmont Sugar was a sugar processing facility located in Longmont, Colorado that operated between 1903 and 1977.

History

 

Before ground even broke on this now-abandoned mill, more than 4,000 acres of sugar beets were planted around the proposed construction site. Nearby factories usually processed the beets grown around Longmont, an especially fertile region of Eastern Colorado and one already dotted with sugar factories. There was debate, in fact, about whether there was going to be an oversaturation of sugar facilities surrounding Longmont farms.

The compromise reached was to build a lower-capacity factory, amounting to about 600 tons of processed beets daily—a statistic with a footnote. Longmont Sugar Factory was to be overbuilt, able to achieve twice the initial capacity the following season, were it required. Construction began in 1903.

Business was good, so much so that by 1907, 600 employees worked the sugar plant around the clock. In 1920 and 1921 the factory processed about 2,500 tons daily—unbeetable.

Eventually, not even the government’s tariffs and beet farmer subsidies could keep domestic sugar profit margins at a sustainable level, and soon sugar mills across Colorado and the United States were locking their workers out for the last time.

Among them, Longmont Sugar Factory in 1977.

Galleries

By Dan Glass

By Dan Glass

8 Photos

Contributing Posts

Coloradan Cavity: Longmont Sugar by Dan Glass

The new white plant was built against one wall of the old brick one, a weather-stained collection of wrecked windows, framed in a brick gallery for private audiences only…

Sources

  1. (1902). The Sugar Beet, 24(4), Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=-tvmAAAAMAAJ
  2. (1903). The sugar beet, 24(3), Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=e9vmAAAAMAAJ
  3. (1905). The Sugar Beet, 26(9), Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=JNrmAAAAMAAJ
  4. (1907). The Western investors review, 14. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=9H8AAAAAMAAJ
  5. (1912). Gleanings in Bee Culture, 40. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=OKy4AAAAIAAJ
  6. (1913). Sugar, 15. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=MPDmAAAAMAAJ
  7. (1915). Sugar, 17. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=HfLmAAAAMAAJ
  8. (1922). Sugar, 24. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=lszmAAAAMAAJ
  9. (Mason, E. (n.d.). Longmont Times-Call, Retrieved from http://www.timescall.com/communityTC/profile.asp
  10. (Reports of the usgpo. (1901). (70-77), Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=ziA7AAAAYAAJ
  11. (Technology of beet sugar manufacture: a textbook describing the theory and practice of the process of manufacture of beet sugar. (1920). [p.48]. (Google Books), Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=w3JBAAAAIAAJ
  12. (US Congress, Special Committee on the Investigation of the American Sugar Refining Co. (1911). Hearings GPO. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=JyyzvBLM72wC