The Wiarton Beet Sugar Factory


Figure W7A:  An engravaing of the Wiarton Beet Sugar Factory (about 1902)


Five years before the Wiarton Cement Works opened, another large factory established itself along the same shore a little closer to Wiarton.  B.B. Freeman and a Mr. Porteous laid the cornerstone for the Wiarton Beet Sugar Factory on June 5, 1902 in the grandest ceremony Wiarton had ever seen (10 000 visitors were expected to take in the day-long festivities).  The sizeable four-storey brick structure was built by the Colonial Construction Company of Detroit.  It definitely would have dominated the shoreline in its day.

Beet sugar operations had first been opened in Canada in the 1890s in Ontario, Quebec and the prairie provinces.  When the Wiarton plant began producing sugar a couple years after its cornerstone had been laid, prospects must have looked bright.  Local resident Stan Wright described the operations in the book Wiarton: 1880 to 1980 as follows:

"[The factory] got beets from Manitoulin Island and had a little dock dredged out right by the factory. ... Trains would bring the beets in on tracks, and water was running in the long sheds and then the beets would all be washed.  They would be weighed on scales, then come down the ramp and have the sugar squeezed out of them.  They would be boiled in the big sugar shed."  [As a note, the factory was served by the same rail line that led to the Wiarton Cement Works.]

Figure W7A, above, shows an engraving of the beet sugar factory likely done about the time of its opening for business. Figure W7B, below, gives two rare photographs of the factory likely from about 1903.


Figure W7B:  Rare photographs of the Wiarton Beet Sugar Factory in operation (about 1903 - damaged photo, retouched).


The top image of Figure W7B is an exterior shot looking inland from the shore of Colpoy's Bay. This photo is made all the more rare by the fact that it was taken at night (although somewhat overexposed), casting an eerie glow upon the trees who's shadows darken the fresh snow. The bottom of Figure W7B shows some employees in the interior of the Wiarton Beet Sugar Factory during its prime.

However, prime is a relative word, because the beet sugar plant never operated at a profit.  Although labour and beets were plentiful, it appears that incompetent management led to massive waste and inexcusably inefficient performance.

As part of the contract to build the factory, Colonial Construction Co. was to operate the firm for the first season (1902).  It was a disaster!  Colonial had improperly installed the equipment and completely lacked any knowledge of the beet sugar industry.  As a consequence, less than half of the expected amount of sugar was obtained that year and the firm lost $63 000 (about $1.1 million today).  A full $50 000 (about $900 000 today)  worth of beets and juice were said to have literally gone down the drains and into the bay that year.  To continue operations, a new superintendent was hired, Wiarton loaned the company $25 000 (about $450 000 today) and another $110 000 (almost $2 million today) was raised by selling bonds to the public.  Unfortunately, the second season brought the same type of result.  On January 12, 1904, the bonds were called in.  The overall cost to the town was about $200 000 (about $3.5 million today) when the population was about 2400 people!

In April of 1906, the Wiarton Echo declared that a new company was in control of the factory (likely the Dominion Sugar Co. of Chatham, Ont.), writing "The Factory will be operated in Wiarton as long as the farmers will supply the beets.  This is an assured fact. ... The new company has plenty of capital, will pay cash and the financial standing of the Directors is such as to remove all doubt on this score." Figure W7C gives a spectacular view of the sugar beet factory during this period of time. To my knowledge, this is the only close-range daytime photo of the sugarbeet factory in its original condition.


Figure W7C:  A beautiful image of the sugar beet factory looking west down Frank Street toward town. (Likely taken between 1904 and 1907).


Despite new ownership, however, trouble seemed to rear its head again quite quickly though, because in May of the next year, creditors arrived to remove the electric light plant inside the factory, evidently because the company could not entirely pay for it.  The Dominion Sugar Co. appears to have closed its Wiarton operations soon after, a scant five years following the factory's triumphant opening.  In August of 1907, it was reported that the factory would likely be converted into a distillery.  For some reason or another, however, that deal never materialized.

As the building continued to lay vacant, the Echo pitched it in 1911 as "an ideal furniture factory [available] for one-fifth its cost".  But Wiarton was already served by several furniture factories and no buyers came forward.

During the first world war, the factory's empty walls served as training grounds for troops, but the mighty building was never to see commercial use again.  On August 4, 1918 the controversy over the factory was settled when the Echo reported that the building had been sold for scrap and would be torn down immediately.  As the walls tumbled, the town of Wiarton was left with $11 325 (about $125 000 today) to pay on debentures it had sold to help finance the factory.



Figure W7D: The ruins of the Wiarton Beet Sugar Factory (about 1918 and 1924).


The top image of Figure W7D shows the expansive ruins of the Wiarton Beet Sugar Factory shortly after they were demolished in 1918. The lower images shows the same ruins from ground-level some six years later.  Evidently the walls and foundation of the factory sat for some time as a sad reminder of dashed dreams.

The top image in Figure W7E, below, gives a spectacular view of the southern shore of Colpoy's Bay.  At the left is the Wiarton Cement Works and on the right is a rare view of the intact Wiarton Beet Sugar factory.  At the time of this picture, neither of these companies appear to be in operation.  The fact that the cement company closed in 1917 and the sugar factory was torn down in 1918 gives us a rough idea of when this photo was taken.  The bottom image of Figure W7E shows a similar view 86 years later.  Today's view shows no trace of the beet sugar factory, although a portion of the cement works live on as Caframo Ltd.


Figure W7E: A southerly view (despite caption) across the bay. Top Image (~1917): beet sugar factory is visible at right, cement works at left. Bottom Image (2004): There is no trace of the sugar factory, the cement works live on in Caframo Ltd.


Following the destruction of the beet sugar factory, the property remained vacant until 1951 when a German immigrant by the name of Sturmm set up the Wiarton Sash and Door factory.  If one looks closely at this building, one can find the foundation of the old sugar beet factory, part of which was incorporated in the foundation of the Wiarton Sash and Door building.


Figure W7F: Wiarton Windows and Doors (former location of beet sugar factory) c. 2004.


Today, the sash and window company still operates, although its name was changed slightly in 1985 to Wiarton Windows (it is also often referred to as "Wiarton Windows and Doors" or "Carson Windows and Doors").  In the Spring of 2004, the warehouse located on the former sugar beet factory site was put up for sale (see Figure W7F, a similar view to the bottom image of Figure W7D).

As for the Dominion Sugar Co, it merged with Redpath Sugars in 1930 to create the Canada and Dominion Sugar Co., still referred to as Redpath Sugars.  This firm was, in turn, acquired by the British company Tate and Lyle plc in 1959 and continues to operate today.

There is currently only one beet sugar plant left in Canada.  It's located in Taber, Alberta.
 



Web-Pac Antiques, Postcards 
& Collectibles WebRing
Prev| Skip| Next5 | Random| Next
Web-PacAntiques, Postcards
&Collectibles WebRing Member Listing



Postcards From the Bay was launched April 14, 2000

Visit Wiarton.ca





© Copyright 2000 - 2009 Christopher R. Graham