In 1916, the Oregon Utah Sugar Company erected a large beet factory on this site under the oversight of C.W. Nibley, a company director and presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nibley’s sons, Alex, Merrill, and D. J.O., along with other knowledgeable Mormons, secured contracts, taught local residents about beet farming, supervised construction, and operated the plant after completion. Though short lived, the factory brought considerable attention and growth to the Rogue Valley, employed more than 150 people in construction and operation, used over 700,000 bricks supplied by local brick maker C.E. Woolfolk, supported area ranches that fattened cattle on beet pulp, and kept a nearby lime quarry busy. On October 24, 1916, an open house and gala celebration called Sugar Day marked the first day of operation and was covered by Pathe News, the Grants Pass Daily Courier, and other regional newspapers. Early in 1917, Melvin J. Ballard organized a branch of the L.D.S. Church in Grants Pass with 38 members, with James Hood as branch president and Jamima Hood as Relief Society president. The venture needed at least 5,000 acres of sufficiently irrigated land to succeed, but because enough land and water could not be secured, it did not survive its second year. The entire operation was dismantled and moved to Toppenish, Washington, and by the end of 1918 only a pile of broken bricks and huge cement foundations remained, part of which still exists under the asphalt parking lot of the Fruitdale Grange.