Sugar Factory Elevator - Raymond, AB
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 49° 28.767 W 112° 38.447
12U E 381147 N 5482050
Northeast of Raymond, AB is a Parrish & Heimbecker elevator with an interesting history.
Waymark Code: WMMJ9T
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 09/27/2014
Views: 2
To begin, the elevator started life as a sugar beet processing factory. Canadian Sugar Factories Ltd. opened on October 19th, 1925. This was actually Raymond's second sugar factory, the first having commenced operation in 1903. This factory remained in operation until 1914, when the war caused the price of grain to skyrocket, making grain growing more profitable than beet growing. That spelled the end for the first factory.
By 1924 grain prices were down again and farmers were exploring the possibility of growing sugar beets once again. This, the second sugar beet factory, was built beside the foundations of the first by the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. In 1931 it was sold to the B.C. Sugar Refining Company of Vancouver, BC. By 1934 factory improvements and agricultural advancements had increased production sufficiently that the factory processed 175,066 tons of beets and produced 530,986 100 pound bags of sugar in that year. Sugar beet growing had become so successful that a second, then a third factory were opened at Picture Butte and Taber. The Taber plant is still in operation.
The last year of sugar beet processing at Raymond was 1964, after which the plant closed as it was no longer economically competitive. Some time later the factory was sold to Parrish & Heimbecker, who converted the large beet storage silos for grain storage and it became a grain elevator.
Today we're not certain of the status of the facility. Very recently part of the old brick factory was torn down and four large steel bins erected in its place. No longer owned by P & H, we suspect it is operated by a farm or another grain buyer, feedlot, etc. The rail line has been abandoned, so any movement of grain would be by truck.
