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American Crystal Sugar Company

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American Crystal Sugar factory, Moorhead

The brand-new American Crystal Sugar factory in Moorhead, 1948. From the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association records, 1919–1994, Northwest Minnesota Historical Center, Moorhead. Used with the permission of Northwest Minnesota Historical Center.

The American Crystal Sugar Company evolved out of its predecessor, the American Beet Sugar Company, in 1934 to operate factories in Minnesota, Iowa, and Colorado. After the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association bought it in 1973, American Crystal moved its headquarters to Moorhead, Minnesota, and became the first farmer-owned sugar beet cooperative in the United States.

Until the late 1700s, Europeans could access sugar only by importing refined sugarcane grown in tropical areas. In 1744, a German chemist discovered a way to produce sugar from sugar beets, a hardy plant found in the Mediterranean region, and by the 1810s, France had over 40 sugar beet factories. In the United States, however, there was little success producing sugar from sugar beets until Henry T. Oxnard decided to try his hand at it.

Oxnard built a sugar beet factory in 1890 in Grand Island, Nebraska, using equipment imported from France. After building a second factory in Nebraska, he set his sights on California, and built a plant east of Los Angeles and another one in Ventura County. In 1899 he consolidated his four factories to create the American Beet Sugar Company. After building a factory in Colorado, he moved the company’s headquarters to Denver.

While Oxnard was building his empire, the fledgling sugar beet industry was making inroads in Minnesota. Randolph Probstfield in Moorhead was the first recorded person to grow sugar beets in the state. A sugar beet factory was built in St. Louis Park in 1898 and rebuilt in Chaska after burning down in 1905. Carl Wigand, a farmer in Crookston, grew his first crop of sugar beets in 1918 and sent them to be processed at the factory in Chaska. Wigand’s beets, grown in the fertile soil of the Red River Valley, were so impressive that the Minnesota Sugar Company, which operated the Chaska factory, encouraged him and his neighbors to grow more.

Henry Zitkowsi, the general chemist for the American Beet Sugar Company, learned about the excellent growing conditions in the Red River Valley, and visited in 1924. Upon his recommendation, the company bought the Minnesota Sugar Company’s factories in Chaska and Iowa, and completed a factory under construction in East Grand Forks. American Beet changed its name to the American Crystal Sugar Company in 1934.

The expansion of American Crystal Sugar into the Red River Valley coincided with the introduction of Latino and Chicano migrant workers from Texas to Minnesota. Entire families came up for the sugar beet planting season (April/May–June) and harvest (September/October–November), and American Crystal provided housing. For the laborers, however, the work was hard, and the housing was often dilapidated. During the winter months, they either returned south or settled in the Twin Cities area.

During World War II, labor shortages led sugar beet farmers to rely more on migrant labor from Texas, as well as on African Americans from the south, Jamaicans, and German prisoners of war. After demand for sugar increased when war sugar rations ended, American Crystal built a factory in Moorhead in 1948 and one in Crookston in 1954. Although it built a factory in Drayton, North Dakota, in 1965, competition from sugarcane imports led to the closure of many of the company’s factories outside of the Red River Valley during the 1960s, including the first factory Henry Oxnard had built in Nebraska.

In the mid-1930s, the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association (RRVSGA) was formed to represent hundreds of beet growers in the Red River Valley and increase beet acreage. It also advocated for more factories, and lobbied congress on behalf of the farmers. Over the following decades, the relationship between American Crystal and the RRVSGA became contentious. Growers were disgruntled with their contracts, the company’s lack of willingness to grow, and poorly maintained factories and equipment. Al Bloomquist, hired in 1962 to direct the association, became a respected advocate for sugar beet growers.

Things came to a head when the Chaska factory was closed in 1971. The RRVSGA made a daring proposal to buy the American Crystal Sugar Company and make it a cooperative. Over 70 percent of the association’s membership voted in favor, and the purchase was finalized in 1973 for $86 million, making American Crystal the first farmer-owned sugar beet cooperative in the country. A new headquarters was built in Moorhead in 1974, and a research center opened in Moorhead in 1977. The company added a factory in Hillsboro, North Dakota, in 1975, but it continued to divest itself of factories outside of the valley, selling its last one in 1982. The company that had started in Nebraska, founded a town in California, and was once headquartered in Colorado was now a part of the heart and soul of the Red River Valley.

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American Crystal Sugar Company. “Deep Roots: Our Timeline.”
https://www.crystalsugar.com/our-company/history

——— . “Our Agricultural Cooperative Corporation.”
https://www.crystalsugar.com/our-company/cooperative-profile

American Crystal Sugar Company records, 1883–1983
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Corporate records of the American Crystal Sugar Company; of its direct predecessor, the American Beet Sugar Company; and of other predecessors, subsidiaries, and affiliates. They are supplemented by historical data and printed materials collected by the company or compiled by sugar industry historian Dan Gutleben.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00341.xml

Dezendorf, Alfred. “Henry T. Oxnard at Home.” San Francisco Sunday Call 96, no. 40 (July 10, 1904): 5.
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19040710.2.185.3

Norris, Jim. North for the Harvest: Mexican Workers, Growers, and the Sugar Beet Industry. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009.

S4868
Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association records, 1919–1994
Northwest Minnesota Historical Center, Moorhead
Description: A large collection of the records of one of the Valley’s most successful agricultural cooperatives, detailing the history of sugar beet agriculture in the northern Valley. Includes minute books, statistical records, correspondence, transcribed interviews with growers and officials of American Crystal Sugar Company, films, and photographs.
https://www.mnstate.edu/library/university-archives/northwest-mn/collections/s4868

Shoptaugh, Terry L. Roots of Success: History of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers. Fargo, ND: Institute for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University, 1997.

Strand, Philip. A Heritage of Growth: American Crystal Sugar Company and the First Hundred Harvests. St. Paul: Hakala Communications, Inc., 1998.

Related Images

American Crystal Sugar factory, Moorhead
American Crystal Sugar factory, Moorhead
Construction site of an American Beet Sugar Company factory
Construction site of an American Beet Sugar Company factory
Sugar beet farmers and tractor
Sugar beet farmers and tractor
American Crystal Sugar Company parade float
American Crystal Sugar Company parade float
Black and white photograph of an exterior view of the American Crystal Sugar factory in Chaska. Date and photographer unknown.
Black and white photograph of an exterior view of the American Crystal Sugar factory in Chaska. Date and photographer unknown.
Man with a sugar beet
Man with a sugar beet
Harvested sugar beets
Harvested sugar beets
One-millionth bag of American Crystal sugar
One-millionth bag of American Crystal sugar
Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association display
Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association display

Turning Point

In 1973, the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association, a group of about 1,500 sugar beet farmers in Minnesota and North Dakota, forms a cooperative and buys the American Crystal Sugar Company.

Chronology

1890

Henry Oxnard opens his first beet sugar factory, in Grand Island, Nebraska.

1899

Oxnard consolidates his four beet-sugar factories into the American Beet Sugar Company.

1924

American Beet Sugar Company buys its first Minnesota factories: the former Minnesota Sugar Company factories in Chaska.

1926

The American Beet Sugar Company completes a new factory in East Grand Forks.

1934

The American Beet Sugar Company changes its name to American Crystal Sugar Company.

mid-1930s

The Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association is formed.

1948

American Crystal Sugar opens a factory in Moorhead.

1954

American Crystal Sugar opens a factory in Crookston.

1962

Al Bloomquist becomes the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association’s first paid employee.

1971

American Crystal Sugar closes its Chaska factory.

1972

Blomquist proposes to the president of American Crystal Sugar that the association purchase the sugar company.

1973

Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association members form a cooperative and purchase the American Crystal Sugar Company.

1974

The company’s headquarters moves from Denver, Colorado, to Moorhead, Minnesota.

1977

A research center opens in Moorhead.

1982

American Crystal Sugar sells its last factory outside of the Red River Valley.

1990

Al Bloomquist becomes president and CEO of American Crystal Sugar. He serves for one year.

1993

Along with two other beet sugar companies, American Crystal forms the United Sugars Corporation, a sugar marketing company.