Longmont Legacy

with Erik Mason,
Longmont Museum Director

From the earliest days in the community, food production helped shape Longmont’s economy. Just one year after the town was founded, a small flour mill opened, beginning a long tradition of processing crops for commercial distribution. Over time, that tradition grew to include the Empson Cannery, Great Western Sugar Factory and Longmont’s turkey processing industry.

These businesses became important parts of Longmont’s economy and community, producing everything from canned vegetables and sugar to turkeys that went from the egg to the dinner table. Some industries eventually closed or moved on, but food production continued to evolve.

Today, Smucker’s manufactures Uncrustables at its Highway 119 plant, continuing a food production tradition that began more than 150 years ago.

In the Spotlight:

Longmont’s History of Food Production 

Captions:

1. 1. 1. 1. A black and white photograph of large mill with “Colo. & So.” boxcar in front. Written on back on the photograph in blue ink is “Denio Mill, Old Mill Park.”
         2. Photo of the Empson Cannery taken between 1910-1930.
         3. Black and white photo of a huge wall of cans at the Empson cannery. 1907-1910. Photo by Thomas A. Landers
         4. Hand-tinted postcard of the Beet Sugar Factory, Longmont, Colorado, postmarked 1912.
         5. G.W. Sugar factory with beets piled alongside wagons and men unloading by hand. 1900-1920. Photo by Charles W. Boynton.