Although sugar beets are almost extinct in the Coalhurst area,
they were an important part of the economic growth of the
newly developing L.N.I.D. During the depression years when
grain and other farm products were being sold at give-away
prices, the beet check was often the farmer's only cash income.
It also paid the water rates, land taxes and payments. Many
farmers credit the sugar beet crop with paying for their farms.
Livestock, fed on the byproducts of beets - beet pulp, molasses
and beet tops contributed further to the grower's income.

Probably a short history of the sugar beet industry in Southern
Alberta would be a fitting introduction to this article on local
beetgrowing. In 1903 the first sugar produced from beets in
Alberta was turned out by the newly constructed Knight Sugar
Co. in Raymond. Following several years plagued by bad weather,
weeds and finally competition from high priced grain following
the outbreak of World War 1, the plant closed after the 1914
season. The factory was moved to Cornish, Idaho.

Interest in sugar beets again surfaced in the early 1920's
and an American company - Utah-Idaho Sugar Co.
moved its idle Sunnyside, Washington factory to Raymond
in time to process the 1925 crop. In addition to the acreage
contracted in the Raymond area, the new company - Canadian
Sugar Factories, Ltd. contracted with a few growers in other
irrigation districts to grow small plots of beets. Of the 41
growers contracted to grow beets on the L. N. I. D. ten
were in the Coalhurst area. These were Robert Adam,
J. A. Brewer, T. L. Davidson, E. Dixon, J. I. McDermott,
Florence Pringer, Henry Ross, J. R. Sandham, A. Sherrit,
and R. E. Stewart. At harvest time the beets were hauled
in wagons to the nearest railway siding where they were
forked into waiting box-cars. Apparently this arrangement
was not sat'isfactory as no beets were grown in the Coalhurst
area for the next few years.

With the need for more beets, the company contracted
acreage in the L. N. I. D. with assurances there would be
beet dumps at Iron Springs and Picture Butte to receive
the 1929 crop. In 1930 another dump was put in at
Diamond City. A few growers in the eastern Coalhurst area,
T. R. Beatty, John Berti, H. B. Gillie and G. Webb contracted
and hauled their beets to Diamond City. In 1931 the factory
was sold to the B.C. Sugar Refining Co. of Vancouver.
Improvements to the plant's efficiency following the
takeover guaranteed the viability and continuity of the
sugar beet industry in Southern Alberta.

Pressure from the L.N.I.D. as well as other districts
convinced the Canadian Sugar Factories that another
factory must be built, and they wisely agreed that they
should be the one to build it. A settlement was reached
that a factory would be built at Picture Butte and
completed in time to process the 1936 crop, A beet
dump (Becker) was built one mile N.E. of Coalhurst
and another at Whitney Siding, mid-way between
Coalhurst and Nobleford.

With another factory soon to be in operation ii was
necessary to contract sufficient acres to supply it
with beets. Up to this time the area had been supervised
by Ernest Bennion, factory fieldman. In 1935 he was
succeeded by J. Gerald Snow whose immediate task
was to secure enough prepared acreage for the 1936 crop.
Although a few of the potential growers were originally
from Europe or Utah and were familiar with growing sugar
beets, for most it was an entirely new experience. All
machine work was done with horses, from seeding right
through to hauling the beets to the receiving station.
It was hard to convince a team of green broncs hitched
to a cultivator that they were expected to walk between
two rows of beets 22 inches apart and not to step on
any leaves.

Many stories are told of the mix-ups at the beet dump
when the train would roar past with whistle blowing and
steam hissing from the engine. Sometimes the horses
would take off across country with part of the beet rack
left on the platform. A favorite story at that time was about
the fieldman calling at the farm to check the progress of
the crop. Viewing the seeded field for the first time he
said to the farmer: "Tony, that's the most crooked seeding
I have ever seen, how will you ever cultivate them?" "Easy",
replied Tony, "I'll use the same horses. " During the
next ten years horses were gradually replaced by tractors
and trucks.

The first contracts were usually small and hand labor was
often performed by the grower and his family. Unemployment
was high and labor was readily available. In 1936 labor
received $20 an acre for thinning, hoeing, weeding and
topping an acre of beets. If this wage appears low we
must also consider what the grower received that year
for his beets $6.65 per ton. At the outbreak of war in 1939
when many young people left to enlist in the services or
to go into war plant production, a serious problem
developed at home. Prisoners of war from the camp in
Lethbridge were pressed into service. The movement
of Japanese families from the west coast into the beet
fields of Alberta did much to relieve the labor shortage.
After the war an influx of displaced persons from Europe,
a large immigration of Dutch families and Polish veterans
did not fully meet the needs of the industry. Increased
recruitment of Indians from northern Alberta and
Saskatchewan resulted in this group doing most of the
hand labor in the fields. Mechanical harvesters were
increasing in popularity and had replaced hand topping
by the 1960's.

The acreage had doubled by 1946, at which time Becker
and Diamond City (with similar acreage) were closed
and the beets diverted to the newly created piling
station at Shields, about two miles S.W. of Diamond City.
Here, a modem Silver piler could either load beets
directly to cars or pile them for later shipment to the
factory. Acreage remained fairly constant at about 2,000
acres until the early 1960's when a steady decline began.
Although individual tonnages were slipping, the area
regularly had high tonnage growers. In 1947 the three
top growers on the L.N.I.D. farmed within a few miles
of Coalhurst - A. Locatelli with 19.64 tons per acre,
G. Pearson with 19.13 and James Watmough with
18.63 tons per acre.

The reasons for going out of beets were nearly as
numerous as the growers who were quitting. Labor
problems, family members leaving the farm, obsolete
equipment were the main reasons given. But a feeling
of apathy was apparent among growers whose contract
acreage was often too small to warrant purchasing
new and more expensive equipment. Most of the
farms were now paid for, and without beets could be
operated without hired help. In 1968 only 421 acres were
harvested at Shields and the stations was closed. Only
two local growers remain in the beet industry- Ivan and
Danny Poinjavic who haul their crop to Picture Butte.

Return Coalhurst, Alberta