Places That Were

The crumbling remains of abandoned sugar factories languish throughout Northeastern Colorado, bleak reminders of the rise and fall of the beet sugar industry.

I was still riding high from exploring the Titan I ICBM 2B missile silo launch complex when I drove through Denver. I stopped to grab a quick lunch and then made my way to Loveland to check out the ruins of the Amalgamated Sugar Company White Satin Plant, one of Colorado's many abandoned sugar mills.


Northeastern Colorado was once the site of the thriving beet sugar industry. Tariffs enacted in the early 1900s bolstered the beet sugar companies by artificially raising the prices of imported cane sugar. The Sugar Act of 1948 further aided beet sugar manufacturers by setting quotas for sugar imports and providing subsidies to domestic producers.

After decades of growth, Colorado's beet sugar industry began a sharp decline in the mid-1970s due to a concatenation of circumstances. In late 1974 congress allowed the Sugar Act to expire, removing the government-sponsored advantage that had so benefited the beet sugar producers.

The late 1970s was also a time when the use of sugar in the United States dropped dramatically due to increased use of alternatives such as fructose and artificial sweeteners. The resulting surplus in sugar inventories and competition from cane sugar producers led to falling prices that ate away at profitability. To compensate, many plants were closed in the latter half of the 1900s.


One of the roads alongside the abandoned sugar mill was under construction, and I knew it would be difficult to pass unseen through the site.


I decided I would walk through the grounds as though I had a reason to be there, and if anyone asked me to leave, I would.


I was dying to explore the abandoned buildings, but every entry point was spray-painted with "No Trespassing" in big bold letters and I'd seen a pickup truck drive through the lot and park next to one of the buildings, so I knew there was a good chance I'd be seen.

I wandered the grounds and settled for photos of the exteriors of the crumbling buildings. One structure was entirely gutted, so I walked through it.





On the other side was a train track. Large sections of concrete marked stalls from which sugar was loaded onto freight trains.

The heap of snow inside the train car almost resembles sugar

A rusting metal bridge contained a conveyor belt for moving beets from the storage building to processing facility.



Large sections of the outer wall of one of the structures had fallen away, exposing the interior.


Several smaller abandoned buildings also occupied the grounds.


The smallest contained a little office.


Another appeared to have once functioned as a workshop.



A series of railroad tracks crossed the property, where trains hauled the refined sugar out of the facility for distribution.


How does beet sugar differ from cane sugar, and which is better?

Both cane and beet sugar are 99.95% sucrose, making them nearly identical. The .05% difference consists of traces of minerals and proteins.

According to chsugars.com,

Cane sugar contains trace minerals that are different from those in beet sugar, and it’s these minerals that many experts say make cane sugar preferable to use. As professional bakers have long noticed, cane sugar has a low melting—point, absorbs fewer extraneous and undesirable odors, blends easily and is less likely to foam up. And that can be very important when you’re caramelizing a syrup, making a delicate glaze, baking a delicious meringue, or simmering your family’s favorite jam recipe.

Beets grow in more diverse climates and can be farmed in 12 states, while only 4 states have climates capable of supporting sugar cane.

Harvesting methods differ too. Cane fields are torched to get rid of the leaves and then the stalks are chopped down, while sugar beets are uprooted. Due to the different harvesting methods, beets must be replanted every year; cane regrows on its own.

Beet sugar is typically cheaper to produce because its refining process is less complex than that of cane sugar.


In recent years the beet sugar industry has seen a dramatic shift toward using genetically modified crops. In 2008 Monsanto introduced "Roundup Ready" GMO sugar beets, which are genetically engineered to withstand exposure to glyphosate herbicide. Most cane sugar is not GMO, but since 2010, 95% of sugar beets grown in the US are Monsanto's GMO strain.

Monsanto has so cornered the seed market that non-GMO beets are nearly impossible to come by. In 2010 a federal judge declared Roundup Ready sugar beets illegal because Monsanto had not performed the necessary environmental impact studies. But non-GMO beets had already become so rare that the USDA told farmers to ignore the ruling in order to avoid a probable 20% decrease in crop yields.

Nowadays, 55% of sugar sold in the US is beet sugar. If a package isn't specifically labeled as cane sugar, it probably contains beet sugar, which means it is almost certainly GMO.



After my relatively short time in Loveland's abandoned sugar mill, I got back on the road and headed west toward Utah, where I would spend the night in the incredible ghost town of Cisco, which quickly became one of my favorites.

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After exploring the ruins of Ludlow, Colorado, a bleak mining ghost town and the site of the infamous Ludlow Massacre, I turned my sights northward. Only a few hours of daylight remained and I intended to make the most of them. I stopped in Trinidad to refuel before following Highway 350 toward the crown jewel of my road trip, an abandoned Titan missile silo complex.

Several interesting sights caught my eye, and I ended up staying in Trinidad longer than anticipated. Just off the freeway I spotted a cluster of mysterious old brick buildings on large piece of land.


I drove through the neighborhood and parked to take a few pictures. One of the neighbors was getting home just as I arrived, so I asked him if he knew anything about the old buildings. He didn't have any concrete information about them, but believed the site had once been a farm, and at one point had housed military personnel.



I was dying to get a closer look, but my hopes were dashed when I came to a gate with no trespassing signs.


I settled for a few low-quality zoomed-in shots and then got back on the road.


On the way out of town I spotted a few other neat old buildings and snapped a few quick shots from the road.


I had a long drive ahead of me, but was determined to reach an abandoned schoolhouse in the rural community of Tyrone before dark. About twenty miles from Trinidad I passed a sign for the oddly named town of Model, Colorado. I hadn't planned on stopping there, but an abandoned store caught my eye, and I could resist pulling over for a closer look.


I walked down the dirt road and caught sight of a desolate little town full of decaying buildings.




I immediately knew I wouldn't make it to Tyrone before dark; there was too much to explore in Model.

My heart pounded as I roamed the town, taking in the unexpected beauty of the place. It was one of those torturous moments that simultaneously filled me with wonder and frustration. I wanted to explore the entire place, but the sky was darkening and I knew it would be impossible to see everything before the remaining daylight faded away.


There were many abandoned homes in Model, ranging form one room shacks to full-sized houses.



Many of the homes still had possessions in them, like this cute little shack with a chair, a sink, a fridge, a stove, some shelves, and not much else.



While running around to the different properties I encountered a feral cat outside that almost looked like a bobcat. It was pretty big and brown with black accents on its fur. When it saw me, it moved, but then stood there watching me from a couple yards away. It had been well concealed in the scrub before I disturbed it. It didn’t act pissed or anything, so I just continued on my way.


The only homes that still seemed to be inhabited were on the far side of town. One or two porch lights shone in the distance, and the urgent barking of a dog carried through the cold evening air.  The dog, unaccustomed to visitors, continued to bark the whole time I was there.



It got dark very quickly, so I used the hell out of my flash. The camera I had at the time wasn't great at handling low light conditions, so most of the pictures ended up very grainy.







A few abandoned vehicles and trailers sat rusting in the yards.


An old car propped up on a stack of wood reminded me of the Ghostbusters car.


I didn’t go into many of the structures, mainly because of time considerations, but I did take a look inside one house near the highway, adjoined to a shuttered mechanic shop.




The place was in bad shape. Water from thawing snow dripped continuously from a damaged ceiling.


The place looked like it had been abandoned for several years. It seemed like the person who used to live there had died, and the trustees didn’t put much effort into emptying the place out. It reminded me of the junkyard house in Desert Center, CA.

Clothes still hung in the closet.


Appliances, light fixtures, and a few odds and ends remained in the kitchen.



It looked like someone had come in and sorted through many of the deceased's possessions and gathered them in the living room.


 A junk room/workshop was cluttered with machine parts and equipment.


The living room was huge and contained some interesting artifacts including an oscilloscope,


a set of encyclopedias,


a bunk bed,


a homemade bookshelf,


and a pressure cooker.


A whiteboard listed several items and their estimated cash value, most of them quite low. The camper, valued at $100 was still parked in the backyard.


I imagined the former resident of the house as a self-sufficient do-it-yourself type of guy, who didn't care much about appearances. I felt a little sad that the life he made for himself was now sitting in perpetual decay, discarded by his next of kin.

With a name like Model, I expected there to be an interesting story behind the town, but my research turned up surprisingly little information about the place. The region was home to local farming and was gradually abandoned due to competition from corporate farms and devastating droughts.

If you have any more info, please share it in a comment at the end of this article.

I continued up the dark Colorado highway until I reached Tyrone, a tiny unincorporated community with barely anything in it. I stopped at a very old mechanic shop along the highway.





I have no idea when it was built or when it closed, but it is in a very advanced state of decay, literally coming apart at the seams.


One room was filled with a huge pile of tumbleweed.



No artifacts remained, but I found the place incredibly interesting.

The pink paint held up surprisingly well in some places.


In others, not so much.



But work hadn't started yet when I was there. A lot of junk was piled up in the schoolroom.



And the basement contained several old desks, which appeared to be the only school-related artifacts left.



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