Bay City, MI: Michigan/Monitor/Columbia/German-American Sugar Company

(Satellite)

Michigan Sugar Company posted

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Aerial photo of what was then the Monitor Sugar Company factory in Bay City taken during the 1967 sugarbeet slicing campaign.

The factory was built in 1901 by the German-American Sugar Company with an original slicing capacity of 400 tons per day. The factory was designed by architects Pratt & Koepke and constructed by American Copper, Brass and Iron Company of Chicago. Over the years, the company would undergo two name changes: in 1917 it was changed to Columbia Sugar Company and in 1932 it became Monitor Sugar Company.

Michigan Sugar Company took over operation of the factory in 2004 after growers from Monitor Sugar Company merged with growers from Michigan Sugar Company to form the cooperative that still exists today.

1967/69 Bay City Quad @ 24,000

Street View, Jul 2019

In 2024 a $109m Molasses Desugarization Facility was added so that the plant can extract 90% to 95% of the sugar inside beets. [RouteBayCity]

1 of a few interior shots of the new facility via HeyBayCity

Following are some photos of the already existing plant.

Jared Gosselin, Jun 2022

Nick Burns, Nov 2019

Evil Adams, Nov 2017

Is that air horn in the upper-left corner an alarm that the computer can trigger in case something goes out of specification? I know that AT&T switching offices used a big bell for alarms.

Evil Adams, Nov 2017