Franklin County Sugar Beet Factory

Franklin County, Idaho is the first county you come to in Idaho if you go north from Logan, Utah in Cache Valley. Whitney, Idaho is a small town just south of Preston, Idaho and just a few miles north of the Utah-Idaho border. Sugar beets were first successfully raised in the intermountain west in the last part of the 19th century. The first successful sugar beet crop in Franklin County was planted in 1899. They shipped the beets to places such as Ogden, Utah for processing until 1920 when a sugar beet processing factory was built by the Franklin County Sugar Company just south of Whitney. In 1960 the factory was sold to the Amalgamated Sugar Co. I have been unable to determine when it was abandoned but it was a number of years ago.

The photo below is taken from the Whitney cemetery looking south through Cache Valley. The sugar beet factory is to the right with the tall smoke stack. Note the handsome barn to the left.

All of the rest of the photos are taken from the west side of the factory. The big evergreen tree divides the factory, photographically speaking, north and south. The two photos below show the north and south halves, respectively.

The next three photos are the upper story of the north part of the building. The second photo is a close up of the vent on the roof. The third photo is of the two windows on the right side of this story.

The next three photos are of windows on the north end, bottom story.

The photos below are of the part of the building with the company name on it.

The photo below is a close up of the area  just to the left of the section with the company name on it. As you can see this works well in black and white.

The last photo shows The Old Cowboy contemplating the old factory. Either that or he's fallen asleep. Hard to tell sometimes.

Here is a link to some aerial views taken by a drone. Great stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsoqxlck3Bc

Tabernacle--Paris, Idaho

Bear Lake is a large lake on the Utah-Idaho border, at an altitude of 6000 feet. The Bear Lake valley was settled by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(Mormons) in 1863. They almost immediately began making plans for a large meeting house(tabernacle) that could accommodate all the settlers. Materials were hard to come by. Timber was cut and hauled to the site from the mountains. The sandstone used as the basic construction material was quarried from Indian Creek, on the east side of the lake and hauled a distance of 18 miles to the construction site in the community of Paris. The Tueller family of Swiss stonemasons did the stonework. The building was completed and dedicated in 1889. In the time since it was built, the Tabernacle has had maintenance type restoration only. No major changes have been made. The benches, for example, are original.

 The above photo is taken from the main floor, looking from the back to the front where the choir loft, organ and podium are located.

 

 The above photo is taken from the rear balcony.

 

 This photo shows one of the side balconies. Hardwood was scarce in this region, so pine or fir was used. The doors and pews were painted in a "graining" style which uses a technique of varnishing over white paint and while still wet, dragging a comb-like instrument through the wet varnish, creating a hardwood-like grain effect. This effect can be seen more clearly in the photo below of one of the inside doors to the balcony.

 

The photo below shows these doors closed, from the interior.

 The photo above is another view from the balcony.

 

 The photo above shows the woodwork on the ceiling. A shipbuilder, James Collings Sr., built the ceiling using a style commonly found in sailing ships.

The above photo is of the choir loft. The organ is an Austin two manual pipe organ, installed in 1928, built in Hartford, Connecticutt.

 Above is a view of the podium, choir loft and organ  Below is a closeup of the podium.

 

 The photo below is looking from the front to the back of the building. The balcony doors are open.

 

 The Paris Tabernacle is a remarkable building. It holds about 1,500 people and is used for stake conferences. Also it has been used in the past for a Sunday service for all the visitors that flock to Bear Lake in the summer, although I do not know if that is currently the case.