Sugar House Scrmonettes by E. Cecil McGavin This is the third in a series of articles on Sugar House early day history, provided by the Sugar House ramp. Sons of Utah Pioneers. ITT. FIRST ATTEMPTS AT SUGAR MANUFACTURING Under the able direction of Abraham 0. Smoot, the machinery machin-ery was assembled in the Sugar House on Canyon Creek and a painstaking effort made to extract sugar from the sugar beet. In 1855 about 300 acres of beets had been grown and the pioneers were detrmined to produce their own sugar. Again the art had not been mastered and nothing but molasses could be produced from the beets that season. For a time the pro- moters were discouraged and ready to abandon the project. The machinery was removed from the Sugar House and used for other purposes. Much of the machinry was stored in the old tithing yard on Temple Block. It is estimated that the Church lost about $100,000 in these fruitless experiments. Since a high grade of sugar beet could be grown in abundance in the valley it was difficult to give up the idea of making enough sugar for local needs. In 1860 the dismantled Sugar House was converted into a paper mill, where the paper for The Desertt News was manufactured. manu-factured. Though this industry was far more profitable than the manufacture of sugar it was abandoned because the water supply was inadequate to run the heavy machinery. Later, nails were manufactured in the old Sugar House. Even later it became be-came a bucket factory. For several years it became a machine shop for the Utah Central Railway. No matter what industry was carried on within the walls of the old building the name of S'.iar House was indelibly fastened upon the old building. It was never known as the bucket factory, nail manufactory, or machine .-hop. its original name was there to stay Sugar 1 loir".