Dakota Datebook: Drayton Sugar Beets

Oct. 3, 2018 — The American Crystal Sugar Company began operating North Dakota’s first refinery – located near Drayton – on this date in 1965. Farmers in the Red River Valley experimented with sugar beets as far back as the 1870s, but without a processing plant nearby, beets proved a poor venture.

Valley farmers gave sugar beets another try during the agricultural depression following World War I....