Colorado Sugar Manufacturing Company factory, Grand Junction, Colorado 1899 1101 Kimball Avenue Grand Junction Mesa Colorado 81501 USA place:2633 Uranium Mill, Grand Junction, Colorado The factory of a Colorado business that processed locally grown sugar beets, turning them into sugar. It was located near the Colorado River between 9th and 12th Streets, and the building still stands. The factory began operation in 1899, financed by wealth Denver investors. After 3 years of failed crops and little profit, the Western Sugar and Land Company bought the factory, and its fortunes gradually improved. According to Jerome and Agnes Kiefer, the Kiefer Extension Ditch, a business venture of their uncles to bring the west end of the Grand Valley under irrigation, allowed for the large scale growing of sugar beets. In turn, the increase in this crop is what caused the factory to be successful in the early 1900’s. Holly Sugar, who eventually moved their operations to Delta County in 1933, bought the company in 1916. According to Howard Shults, an area livestock auctioneer and raiser, the sugar factory sold sugar beet pulp from its production process to ranchers to feed area cattle. *Some of the information in this history was taken from The History of Las Colonias Park: Historic Crossroads Along the Riverfront Of Grand Junction, Colorado by Jonathan Carr and Claire Kempa. place:349 Grand Junction, Colorado yes yes Western Sugar and Land Company factoryHolly Sugar Company factory