Ventura County Landmark No. 16: Oxnard Sugar Beet Factory Site
Historical Background
In 1896, local farmers began experimenting with sugar beets in addition to barley and lima beans. A prominent local farmer, Albert Maulhardt, visited sugar industrialists Henry T. Oxnard and his three brothers’, James, Robert and Benjamin, at their American Beet Sugar factory in Chino, which led him to plant sugar beets for shipment to the plant. Maulhardt’s success persuaded other ranchers to switch from grain to sugar beets (West Ventura County Business Alliance, 2015).
Encouraged by a pledge of 18,000 acres of sugar beets from local farmers, the Oxnard brothers completed construction of a sugar beet factory adjacent to the beet fields in 1898 on what was then known as Rancho Colonia (West Ventura County Business Alliance, 2015).
The American Beet Sugar Factory was built on a 100-acre site between 5th Street and Wooley Road in 1898 at a cost of $2,000,000. It was the second largest sugar beet factory in the world and had a daily capacity of 2,000 tons. It processed over one million 100-pound bags of sugar per season. The massive brick factory, with its 150-foot smokestacks, was located a few blocks northeast of a town-site that, five years later, would become the City of Oxnard. The factory would be the city’s economic backbone for decades, and Oxnard grew steadily into what is now the largest city in Ventura County.
In the factory’s heyday, 40,000 acres of sugar beets were grown in Ventura County. The first load of sugar was produced in 1899 and the last in 1959, at which time the factory was demolished.
Ventura County Railway
The sugar beet factory was responsible for another significant event — bringing a spur line of the Southern Pacific Railroad to the plant site and passenger service to the community. The Ventura County Railway (Ventura County Landmark No. 141), became a 13-mile railroad carrying freight between the Southern Pacific Railroad depot in Oxnard and the U.S. Naval Base and commercial Harbor of Port Hueneme. The railway was incorporated in 1903 as the Bakersfield-Ventura Railway Company to run from Hueneme to Bakersfield. The line from Hueneme to Oxnard was completed in 1905 and carried sugar beets to the sugar factory and passengers to and from the towns. A short branch ran down A Street in Oxnard in the years 1909-1926. In 1911, the line was purchased by the Ventura Railway Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Beet Sugar Company, to haul beets to the factory. During World War II, all of the war material for the Port of Hueneme was carried over this line. In 1959, when the sugar factory closed, the railway was purchased by Martin Smith and Associates and continued to be a profitable enterprise. Presently, the Ventura County Railway is a subsidiary short-line railroad that is part of Genesee & Wyoming Inc., which began operating on the Ventura County Railway in 2011. For much of its first century, Genesee & Wyoming was a 14-mile railroad serving a single customer in upstate New York. The company has since grown to be a leading owner and operator of short line and regional freight railroads serving more than 2,000 customers over 15,000 miles of track in five countries (Genesee & Wyoming, Inc, 2023).
Additional Reading
References
Genesee & Wyoming, Inc (2023). “Our Company”. https://www.gwrr.com/about-us/.
West Ventura County Business Alliance (2015). History of Oxnard, CA. https://web.wvcba.org/visit-oxnard/history_of_oxnard_ca.aspx.
Date Designated: June 1971
Location: North of Wooley Road and East of Oxnard Boulevard, Oxnard
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