Deseret Manufacturing Company

The Deseret Manufacturing Company (/dɛz.əˈrɛt./) was an unsuccessful venture by the LDS Church in the 1850s to process sugar beets into refined sugar. A test factory was established in an area that is now known as Sugar House, Utah.

Freighting sugar to the Utah Territory from the Missouri River Valley cost between forty cents and one dollar per pound, so The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was interested in the sugar beet industry since 1850 as a cash crop for the Mormon settlers. The First Presidency of the LDS church even issued a statement in September 1850, calculating the amount of sugar necessary in the region and echoing nutritional information that was believed at the time.John Taylor served as a missionary in France, and did research at a sugar beet factory in Pas-de-Calais.

In 1851, the LDS Church attempted developing the industry in Utah in an official manner through Brigham Young and John Taylor, establishing the Deseret Manufacturing Company in Spring 1851 between Taylor, John W. Coward, Joseph Russell, and Philip DeLaMare with $35,000 in capital from the LDS church. The machinery was purchased from Faucett, Preston and Company of Liverpool, leaving on March 6, 1852 and arriving in New Orleans on April 26, 1852 via the Rockaway. The equipment was boated to Leavenworth, Kansas, then by 40 high-end covered wagons to Utah. Troubles with transportation, including heavy snows, caused the company to be nicknamed the "Damn Miserable Company". Some of the equipment was abandoned in the Bear River Valley of Utah, and the original Provo factory location was abandoned by late November 1852. Instead, the machinery was set up in Salt Lake City for a test run in an adobe-construction blacksmith shop. The community it was established in is now known as Sugarhouse, and the test factory ready for first processing by December 20, 1852.

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