The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

In the start of the twentieth century, the area papers stated how the Milk River Valley was prime ground for sugar beets. The paper also stated three things were needed to raise them, a farmer, a train and sugar beets.

Thanks to the railroad, the farmer could raise large amounts of sugar beets in the Milk River Valley. They would plow the ground in the spring to a depth of 12 to 15 inches. The seeds came in a burlap bag weighing 100 pounds each. Some farmers that had flood irrigation would split the bag and use it to dam up the ditch. Most farmers used a horse drawn 4-row planter. Yes, it was hard to keep the rows straight. When the seedlings would get 2 to 3 inches tall, they would be hand hoed and thinned to 1 every 12 to 18 inches apart. They were weeded by hand, and the dirt was cultivated to stay loose.

The longer the sugar beets stayed in the ground, the sweeter they got and the more money the farmers made. Harvest time was in late September and lasted 6 to 10 weeks, depending on the amount of beets and the weather. Some beets stayed in the ground and froze. The farmers didn’t have enough help to get them out in time. When harvested, the farmers would use a horse drawn beet lifter to loosen the beets. Then the ground was leveled and the workers would pull the beets, smack 2 together to get rid of the dirt and then cut of the tops. They would throw the beets in a pile for the haulers to load. They were loaded by hand with a beet fork on a horse drawn wagon. If the ground was wet or it was raining they would use more horses to pull the wagon. When loaded, they would take the wagon to a “Beet Dump” to unload it, unless they were 5 to 10 miles away from the factory. The beet dump was located at the railroad siding with rail cars there to take the sugar beets to the factory. The wagon would go up a ramp above the car, weighted, then unloaded by hand. They were unloaded on a metal grate called a grizzly, as they rolled down into the train car the extra dirt and debris called tare would fall into a hopper. When the wagon was unloaded the would load the tare into the wagon from the hopper and weigh it again. This amount deducted from the first amount gave the farmer the total weight of the beets. Some wagons were built with a side that would open to dump the beets. Also, some of the platforms had a locking mechanism on it. The loaded beet wagon would be positioned above the train car and the wagon wheels locked. A hoist then raised one side of the wagon and it would dump the beets into the car. In both, the beets would still go over the grizzly and tare would go into the hopper. On a good day, the farmer could make about 4 trips a day. It was hard work, Sundays were “rest” days, even if the farmer didn’t belong to a church, they still rested. The horses worked hard all week and also needed to rest. Even the beet dumps were closed on Sundays and the locals looked down on you if you worked.

In January of 1906, the farmers and businessmen of this area started a campaign to get a sugar factory to locate in Chinook. In 1925 the Utah Idaho Sugar Company was going to put a plant in the Milk River Valley at either Malta or Chinook. The executives of the company looked at different sites, and then went back to Utah to decide. Chinook was chosen and the site was just east of town. When chosen, the fire alarm was sounded and the bells were rung. The Chinook site was chosen because of the closeness to the Great Northern Railroad and the amount of German immigrants in the area who knew about sugar beets and how to work them in a field.

Work was started on clearing and leveling the property for construction in February of 1925. An easement was granted for a channel to run to the Milk River from the factory. This was to drain the sugar beet impurities into the Milk River, called lime-mud. The newer machinery for the building came from an unprofitable factory in Yakima, Washington. It was estimated that it would take approximately 100 train cars to haul them to Chinook. The sugar beet factory stated slicing beets the week of October 11, 1925. As stated in the Chinook Opinion, the formal opening was on October 21, 1925. People from all over Montana, including dignitaries, railroad officials, U & I Sugar officials and directors came to the opening. The governor of Montana, John E. Erikson was there also. Throughout the day, tour guides gave a tour of the sugar beet factory. One of the highlights of the day was the sugar they served at the luncheon that was made in the factory the week before.

There were two railroad sidings for the beet dumps. A conveyer would carry the beets to the beet dump. Hot water, called flumes, were located below ground level and would move the beets to the mill. The beets would be washed in the flume the first time. When they entered in the mill, a trash collector caught the weeds, beet leaves and other debris. They then went to the large washer where the rest of the dirt was removed. The beets would go to the slicer where they were sliced thin, about the size of a hash brown or a small fry, with a groove on one side that and they were called cossettes. They then went through a diffusion process where the sugar was extracted from the cossettes. The cossettes were pressed and sold as stock food. The beet juice went through heated and numerous filtering processes to remove any more remaining impurities. Lime solutions and Sulphur solutions were added at different stages for purification and bleaching. Evaporating machines took out the moisture and it crystalizes. It was washed and dried again and then bagged.

In January od 1928 the Sugar Company bought more land to expand the feed yard and to drain the lime-mud on. Towns east of Chinook were complaining that the lime-mud would taint the Milk River, which the towns used. With the purchase of the new land, the sugar beet factory was able to put the lime-mud on the land and work it into the ground for fertilizer to plant sugar beets in.

On Friday, January 25, 1929, the boys’ basketball team came out on the court in their new uniforms they just received. On it was a large sugar beet on a black background. The emblem was donated by the sugar beet factory and it was only on the boys’ basketball jerseys. A full article on the jerseys is in the January 31, 1929 Chinook Opinion. From then on, when the Chinook team was on another court, they were called the “Sugar Beeters”.

The end of January of 11943, the Utah-Idaho Company supplied a siren to the city of Chinook. It was to be used in case of an emergency should arise. Four short blasts for a warning and one long blast was that the warning was over.

In June 1944, 500 Mexican Nationals came to the Chinook area to work in the sugar beet fields. With that help, they were still short men to work the beet crop. The beginning of October 1944, 250 German POW’s were brought in to help with the beet harvest. They built a “tent city” at the fairgrounds for the POW’s to sleep in and in the mornings they would work in the fields. The prisoners would be in groups of 20, with a guard. The farmer would take them to the field in the morning and worked until dark. In the beginning of November, they were pretty much done with the beet harvest. Thanks to good weather and the help. The German POW’s were sent to another location and the tent city at the fairgrounds was taken down.

The headlines in the Chinook Journal dated March 20, 1952 read: “Sugar Factory at Chinook Will Be Dismantled, Moved Out of State, U & I Officials Reveal”. The reason given was declining interest in growing sugar beets. The U & I Sugar Beet Factory at Chinook was dismantled and moved to Moses Lake, Washington.

Many thanks to all of you who helped me write this article, or lead me in the right direction. They are: Blaine County Museum, Clerk and Recorder’s Office at the Blaine County Courthouse, Chinook High School, Chinook Chamber of Commerce, Montana Historical Society, Havre/Hill County Library, M.S.U.N Vande Bogart Library, and the many of you I talked with that gave ne information so I could document and write this article.