Spreckels Sugar Company
The Spreckels Sugar Company is an American sugar beet refiner that for many years controlled much of the U.S. West Coast refined sugar market. It is currently headquartered in Brawley, California.
The Spreckels Sugar Company was founded by entrepreneur, industrialist, newspaper publisher, and railroad executive Claus Spreckels (1828–1908) in February 1899. He founded the company town of Spreckels, California, just south of the city of Salinas, California, in 1897, but his descendants began to relinquish control when they started selling homes in the community to the public c. 1925. In 1891, Henry O. Havemeyer, who controlled The American Sugar Refining Company (The Sugar Trust), bought half of the stock of the Western Sugar Company, thus giving his company control of the Hawaiian sugar and of the markets west of the Mississippi River. When it was completed in 1899, Spreckels' "Factory 1" was the largest sugar refinery in the United States and the third-largest in the world. Shipping to and from the plant was mostly by a private Spreckels-owned narrow-gauge railroad system connecting to the docks at Moss Landing, California. The factory was just north of the Salinas River at 36°37′7″N 121°39′5″W / 36.61861°N 121.65139°WCoordinates: 36°37′7″N 121°39′5″W / 36.61861°N 121.65139°W.
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