Beginnings of the beet sugar industry

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The distinction or growing the first beets in the valley of the North Platte

belongs, I believe, to l\Ir. Otto

Jur-gens. He came

to the valley in

the year 1885

and from the ti rst

believed that

sug-ar beets could be

grown

successful-ly here. It was

not until the year

1!!·02, however, when Mr. Jur-gens met H. G. Leavitt, t h e n president of the Standard

n

e e t Sugar Company, of Ames, Nebraska, that a favorable portunity presented itself to try out J\1r. Jurgens' theory.

l\Jr. Jurgens ra•sed a few beets In

his garden for experimental purposes

anti in the fall sent a sample to the

Ames factory for testing the sugar

content. The beets made a gootl

tihow-ing. Mr. Leavitt then decided that

the Valley had a great future in store

and that as soon as possible he would

give the raising oC sugar beets here a

thorough trial. ·

l\Ir. Jurgens is now a Jan~e

land-owner in the vicinity of Scottsbluff,

and has a large acrea,ge of beets

grown on his laud every year.

During the summC'r or l!JO:l, a party

consisting

or

the agricultural

super-intendent of the Standarcl Beet Sugar Company, several factory men and

myself looked on~r the \'alley and

later on it l\'aS definitely clecitlcd to

grow beet~ in l!J05. It required a

i.:t•nulne optimist, at that ti1111', to see

the \'allc;· matlc o,·er into a farming

community-much lt!Ss bet~t raising

territory. I admit that l was not an

optimist about the situation then a111l

foresaw nothing but di fficu llics

ahead. The only thing I kuew about Irrigation was that water would not r1111 up hill and that it was taken out

or

the river and put on the land by

111e:111s or tlitchC's. Like most of the

uni11iliate1J I did not have a great

ilea! or faith In It. I had not tho

r;lii;hll.•st lllea or tho won<!crful re-1111lts that coul<l he obtal11cd hy

put-Beginnings of the Beet Sugar Industr

By GUS HELDT

Great 'lVcstern's Gra11rl Old Man of J.yric11lt1rn i·alley that he aml the sugar beet. in d 11

ting this water onto rich, well

cul-ti Yated land when water was needed.

In the winter of 1904-05, beet

eQnipment and stock sufficient to

grow a trial crop of beets were

as-sembled. loaded into immigrant cars

aud sent to Scottsbluff. The fight to

win the country for sugar beets was

on! Being in charge of this operation

and well aware of t.he necessity or

good beet workers, I hrought along

three experienced families to work

beets.

There were few dwelling houses in

Scottsbluff al that time. It was

al-most impossible to g-et a place to live.

(Conditions in that respect haYe been

th1~ same ever since.) Uut we finally

succeeded in getting two rooms in a

log- house back of the post offict!,

where we lived until the farm where

wo were to establish oursel\·es was

v;.,.::ate<I.

At that time the Valley was thinly

~ettled anti the chief a~;ricultural

pur-suit was, or course, c.Htle raisin;-.

Excellent yields of potato.~s were

orn-rlucet.l, but there was nol a protital.!Q

market. Some field:; of al Ltlfa wcr:!

;.:rown. on the irrig-atc•d lands, l1ut

there was no prolitalilc market for

i.t. ,\!falta, grain a11d potatoes \\'Pre

all the crop:i attC'mpt<!tl. There wa~

one railroad up the \"alley etH!ing at

<:ucrnsey, an<l it ran daily

cornhiua-lion trains.

The same winter. A. J. Baller was

sent to Scottsbluff as fiPltlman for the

Stand:1nl fle0t Sugar Company. He

-furo limn for OJ>Pni11g !arm op<!

ra-llous, J\lr. Dailey anti mysPlf start•!d

out to try to contract with the

farm-ers for growing of beets. \\'e

col-lected consirlcrahle experience but no

contracts. If sugar beets would have

been something to·lariat we no doubt

would have had bl'lter success. After

several days we experienced some

dif-ficulty in getting- up enour:h courage

to mention sugar heets. :\lost of the

farmers considered it a joke anti

would h:ne hcen just nbout as anx"

ions to take up tobacco or cotton

raising-. 8e1·eral limes we received

a very impolite. roug-h rl'ception, as

they seeml'd to think we had some

ulterior motive or that there was

fraud ahout it. Fi11ally, aiter two

\\"eeks of cliscourai;ing efforts, :\Ir.

Otto Jurgens a.greed to sig-n a

con-tract for ten acres o[ beets.

This fin:t contract was wort'hy

or

a half-day celebration. the mnkin~ of

which was easily olitai npd at that

time, as this was before the Volstead

Act.

Once when contractin.~ near :\Tor·

rill,

r

was Jpal'ing a farm ho11se where

1 had iia~s1·tl the night fhotPis hf'ing

a 111i1111s Quantity). and

r

had to pas!:!

thr<lllgh a Wirt~ g:1te. H.ight there Ill\'

horse 11Prit!Ptl to lean• Ill" and i:-i>

alone to ~!'ottshluff, aho11t twenty

two miles tlistant. It was an

evil-mindcd beast anyway, aud probahly

objected to sugar beets 'rnin;;

intro-dnCf~d in the Yalley. At anr rate, we

started for ::;cottshluH with my~ei(

forty rods In the rpar anti keeping

ahonl the Rame reliltion~llip until 2

p. m., when a 1110111Lte1l man ltappcn<!.!

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in

tl1e North Platte Valley

writing in 1922, tal.-cs us qn a toiu- of thoe sparse time ltclpc1l to dcrclop into tllc Nile of :Xorth America

time was made from that point to

S.cottsbluff, whe1·e we dissQlved p;;rt-nC"r:;hip foreYer.

Se Ye ml other contracts for sma II

acreages wer<> obtained later, 1G0

acres or beets being- i;rown that year.

This was sufficient for a test, and at

the clo!'e of the season in spite of all

obstacles, it was plain that we had found a great beet country.

Contrac'ting the second season was

a little cagier. The feeling of the

.farmers was mort'! friendly towards the raisini:: of heels, but they still

ob-jected to doin~ the work th('mselves.

We decided that to make the beet

industry a surcf'ss, i::rowers would

have to lin in<luC('(l to come in from

the 011!sidP. ,\ ~pecial c:ffart was nJ:J<l

•to· ser11rP H n:!c«an hcet worker'°' fro. Lin<·ofn 'that ~,·:i~OI!. whi('h \\'(' we

iorl1111:11t'ir ahh· to do. This was th

rhei:;innill;.: of the Ccrman-Hussi;ln il

.

n

11 x in t hl' val It>·.-. That season ·I:;

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~ro,\·n hy t!ie :::;1;1n<l~i1J

~~\.'.d.-,nn:'.;:~ ('m;1p:rn~· aud ;ippri1. 111a11•b· <lilf· h::1tdr;"l tifJS,_b>:-farme :. C.uJ11liti11ns W1'1-,;~rii1~·t'ii:1t spring. \\"e hail our ,-pri11:: rain" at th1• right tint(•, ~ot lilt' lu•f>ts in rii.:ht anti ha<I a good sta111l In g1•1H·ral.

:'.lany hc>pts W•'r" hlnl'lit•il and

thin-111'11 early a111l t'\'l'r~·thin~ wns goiug lint'. Wltl'll Oii thP hright l'llllllllt•r

morning of J1111 .. Slh. a hla1·k doutl

hon• In :-;i;:ht ill t hr north

"""'t.

l n al..,111 lift""" mi1.11t1•,; thr wh11l1· ~i\y

wa!I clarli1•tu••I anti parult>nio11i11111·

111r111•tl lon,;1•. Tltt• wi111I ""r"•'•'hl'd a111I

howt .. tl a111l thP air was til1P1I with

11a111I a111l gr:iH·I 1lri\'Pll at ><lll'h a

rap-Id rate that it was Impossible to face

it. Many heels were Jost hy farmers

and Company. One forty-acre field

which was hunched and thinned,

dis-appeared root and hranch. together

with three inches of soil. This field

was replanted and made a p;ood yield.

Some of the farmers <lid not replant as they were too badly discouraged. This was my first experience with a

Scottsbluff County sand storm in a

heet field.

The loading of beets at the

sta-tions was some job as there was no

regular equipment or no dumps as

there arc today. \Ve had to use all

sorts of makeshifts. All kinds of cars

were loaded. stocl> ca rs, rf'frigerator

cars, box cars, in fad, anything lhat

would run on rails. Stock cars were

considered easy to loacl. hf'ca u'lie six teams wou](l crowcl around one car,

a board was knoclied off the side, the

beets were sho\'C'led through this

01wninp;, a t1~a111 on each 1•t1d and two

teanrn Of6 l'a(·h sidr,. Tlw n1t:a11cst cars

to load \\'(•re the box cars. as in

sho\'-eling into the small pigl'unholcs at

the ends. about half the beets fell

ha<·k onto the sl11n·f'!Pr. t·ansinp; great

loss of t•'llll><'r. ~hon•Ji11g- into pill's nowa<la)·s l'annut Ju• co111parP1l with tl1t• aggra,·atilll!' work or lo:ulinl!' cani

in the C';frh· da\·~. Xo h<'cts werP

piled and 11'1a11y °ilays thf'rc were no

1·ars. l'.011spq11Pnt ly a grower often

h:ul to make se\'cral trips to get his

\\~a ~on IJ;u.' k.

,\! !hi' dose or tho s1:cilnd season

C\"Prythiug seemc1l to point to n

.sri:ad)" ,.;ruwrh of the s11;.;ar lwl.'I

IJusi-'f_~~-vi'Hf!'Jt! ()j o"!_c?tt.,Ul~tl! iTI· J.Qf/!I,,,

/u~t ainill t u fWttr 1.Jt'/Or~ 1rork .~ta led ~n the-OW far-fur// t111·1:J:. 1'1ds "'re

vi,.,,. was ta!." 11 11.11 .·!. '/'. ('rairforr/ {us 11ol!'tl) fro111 t/11· 1011'11 1rnl1T l1Jlf1'r, looki11y 11ortli 11lu11r1 J:rn111/1cay, 11'1111 t111: rttilroatf r111111111.a 111Jrlil1r1·stH·ard

at Ifft Iowan/ .l!ilc/1f'll. Tiie fnc

homt'S u111/ li11si111·ss hous,.s ClllJJ/wsizr:

tlic lru11sfor11111tirm brmcylit lutcr

/JV t/11• rnyar l.io·t.

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Jiess in the Valley. \Ve were fcclill!;

pretty well plPasccl with the Sll<'C•'SS

of our efforts, when we were notified

that our Company had collapsr:d and

goiw into the hands or' a rccc1\'er.

'fhis, of course, P11de1l the s11~ar

beet hu~iness i11 thl' Valley for lhe

time bl!ini:;. Il11t the \'alley was

booming then with the !rnilcling of

two hi1' .clitch<'s, tlw Tri-State a11d

·Govcr11ment. These ditches were

bringing under irrigation an immense

acrcage-1G3,000 acrl·s-and the

country was settlin~ ra11idly.

'l'he Tri-State Lane! Company by this time had purchased some ~.GOO

acres of land. ancl our time was

de-voted to the breakinK ont and

iarm-lng of these lands. This was an

in-tensely interesting period as :-·011

could almost hear lrnsiness and

indus-try hum on all sides. It was not the

hectic boom of war times, but a

steady, well-balanced boom founded

on good land.

I again entered the beet game in

1910. Contracting beets at that time

was no easy job and I well remember

making seYen trips to a farmer li..-ing

five miles out to get a twenty-two

acre contract. For this contract I

drove seventy miles with a horse and

buggy,

in 1908 The Grrat Western.Su~ar~

-Company came· into

tile

valley

_

and"

obtained fifteen hundred acres. The

beets were shipperl to Sterling,

Colo-rado. Not many farmers unclerstood

beet growing and with the former

tri-als and trib11lations were shy oi: it.

i\!any of the new settlers came irom

the corn helt 'and were trying to grow

corn. Hut with the improved

meth-od of receiving beets, the reliable cash market for the crop, and the

profits realized from beets, the crop

attracted increased numbers each

year. The acreage steadily grew

un-til at the present time four factories are required to handle the crop in the valley.

Scottsbluff at the beginning of the beet industry had a population of two

hundred eighty-four. The

popula-tion at the time or the last census

showed six thqusand nine hundred twelve. Scottsbluff County at the

be-ginning o! the hct>t industry had a

11opulation of 2.:.;,2 and now has a

11opulatio11 of 20.710. Scottsbluff has

grown 295.6 per cent in populat:on

in the last ten yrars. Other towns

a11il ro1111til'S in thr \'alley have grown

in 11roportion. a1Hl the encl of

improve-nwnts a11d tlev1dopmf't1ts is ncit in

sip;ht. Tlu•rc is another ditd1 under

~011str11ct ion hy the Co\·prnmen t, whkh will wat1·r appraxima!PI}' l

lU.-000 arrPs. This means morp bcl't~.

more Improvements and more Jlru,;- • . /

1>errty. ~lay, 19!!2

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