T-Shirt Design

Raymond's Sweet history

This year's t-shirt is based on the Alberta Sugar logo. The sugar factory in Raymond played a critical role in establishing the Town of Raymond and providing livelihoods for many residents and surrounding farmers.

To begin, the grain elevator near the North entrance of town 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 original 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 and 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 in 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.

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