Salad Bowl of the World · Episode 7 of 14 · 21 min
The Sugar King's Town
Claus Spreckels, the Sugar King, picked a bluff over the dry Salinas River in 1897 for what local accounts called the world's largest beet-sugar factory. Around it he built wells, a railroad, a contract system, and a company town. The pumping began drawing down the valley's underground river, and the work was divided by race between field and factory. The last beets arrived in 1982.
Who's who
- Claus Spreckels+2 more episodesSugar King who built the Spreckels factory and town
- John Steinbeck+4 more episodesWorked Spreckels ranches and the company lab in the early 1920s
- William H. WeeksArchitect of the Spreckels factory
- Jesse D. CarrSalinas booster who pledged local beet acreage to Spreckels in 1896
Where it happens
- Spreckels, California+1 more episodeCompany town and factory site on the Salinas River
- Salinas River, California+2 more episodesDry riverbed above which the factory bluff stands
- Gonzales, California+2 more episodesSite of deep wells that made Spreckels a leading irrigator
- Watsonville, California+1 more episodeSpreckels' first full-scale beet factory, opened 1888
- Maui, HawaiiWhere Spreckels grew cane on 40,000 acres
- Moss Landing, California+3 more episodesWharf reached by Spreckels' narrow-gauge railroad
Timeline
- 1888Spreckels opens the Western Beet Sugar Company factory at Watsonville.
- August 6, 1897The Spreckels Sugar Company is incorporated, capitalized at $5 million.
- 1899The first full campaign begins at the new Salinas Valley factory.
- 1906The April earthquake damages the refinery, which reopens by October.
- 1929A warning appears that more water is being pumped than the rains put back.
- July 1982The last beets are processed; the main building comes down in 1993.
Still debated
Whether the plant was the largest beet-sugar factory in the world or the largest refinery in the country depends on what is counted. Capacity figures, the incorporation and opening dates, and the closure year (1981 or 1982) vary by source, and the 1929 acreage collapse needs verification.
