Last week my column was on sugar and I mentioned that at one time, sugar beets were grown in SW Kansas. Some of you may remember that back in the 1950s and maybe early 60s one of the best classes in Junior High was “KANSAS… OUR STATE” or as we would say Kansas History. Students learned so many basic things about Kansas and they were taught to appreciate Kansas and the many things it has to offer. Would be a good idea to try to teach things about Kansas to today’s Kansas youth.
This week I came across that book and there were four pages devoted to sugar beets. California and Colorado, followed by Nebraska were the top three states raising sugar beets but Kansas raised a good amount. In 1950 Kansas farmers planted 10,000 acres with most being grown in southwest Kansas. They did especially well along the Arkansas River where water was available for irrigation. They were grown in Coolidge in Hamilton County on the west to Great Bend, in Barton County on the east. The only sugar mill in Kansas was in Garden City. The top 11 counties in order of production were: Finney, Scott, Hamilton, Kearney, Grant, Wichita, Pawnee, Greeley, Gray, Ford and Hodgeman.
The four story sugar mill, built in 1906, was located at the west edge of Garden City. It employed about 300 people for about two months in the fall to handle the harvest and about 70 year round. During the fall period of sugar making or “campaign” as it was called the factory operated 24/7, seven days a week. 1,200 tons of beets were processed each 24 hour period. Without irrigation, neither Colorado or Kansas could have grown sugar beets.
It is interesting to note the mill in Garden City was served by it’s own railroad, the Garden City and Western. The railroad owned 15 miles of track, 20 cars and two locomotives, one diesel electric and one oil burning steam locomotive. The road extends west from Garden City west through Finney County to the Kearney County line. During the years of it’s operation the rail line hauled about 40 per cent of the 70,000 tons of beets grown in Kansas each year. There were five stations on the rail line for loading the sugar beets. The rail line was also used during wheat harvest and sometimes even cattle.
This small tidbit about sugar beets points to the fact that we generally know very little about the farming history of Kansas, where many of us call home.
