Stepping back in time…”The Beetdiggers” remind us of our roots

By Julian Craveiro
Posted October 20th, 2015 by Brush News-Tribune

In honor of beet season I thought it appropriate that we look at a historical building that, although is not here anymore, is a key piece of this community’s history. Beet farming in the 1800’s is what drove the local economy of Morgan County. Fort Morgan and Brush would both reap the benefits of this farming and, in fact, still do today.

Brush, in particular, was at the forefront of farming and harvesting this new crop, but also was the first of the two communities to go about getting a factory and raising sugar beets.

An interesting story of the man that is Brush’s namesake, U.S. Army Brigadier General Jared Lemar Brush was searching for food with his troops in 1867 when they discovered strange looking, bulbous plants protruding from the ground along the South Platte River. They had hoped that this plant would give nourishment to him and his weary men. By many he was given credit for discovering sugar beets, although they had been grown in the area years prior by German immigrants. The ones discovered by Brush were simply off crop that had probably grown from seeds dropped along the trail by earlier settlers.

Owning several profitable factories out west, Great Western Sugar Company was looking to expand to the east. Around 1903, Great Western enlisted the help of the local newspaper the Brush Tribune.
Through this effort, they convinced enough local farmers, with free beet seed, to plant 1,100 acres. One of the driest years on record, 1903 resulted in very poor crop production. In over a thousand acres of planted beets, only seven tons would be harvested.
Due to the poor results the previous year, only 300 acres were planted in l904. However, the weather was far better which resulted in more than 3,000 tons of beets being harvested with less than half of the amount planted the previous year.
The excitement grew and it was enough to persuade Great Western to build a factory in Brush.

Great Western had only one more obstacle preventing them from opening up a factory. The scarcity of irrigated acreage in the area would prove detrimental to the profitability of a factory located there. Local farmers and businessmen would work together to raise enough capital to build Jackson Reservoir. By 1905, they also constructed three additional irrigation projects in efforts to support the factory and farming of the new crop.

The Upper Platte and Beaver Canal, Lower Platte and Beaver Canal and the Riverside Ditch were finished before the end of the year.

Read the full story here.