WEST JORDAN — Jack Jorgensen can recall as a 17-year-old working in the old Utah-Idaho sugar factory, harvesting sugar crystals from a centrifuge, the aroma of sweet filling his nostrils.
"I was still going to school, so I worked from midnight until school started in the morning," Jorgensen said of his summer job in 1943.
Now 77, Jorgensen is one of a dwindling few who can remember what was once a lifeblood industry for many Utah families: the processing of sugar beets.
From 1916 to 1971, the West Jordan sugar factory was the heart of the region's economy, employing hundreds of people over the generations. Now, 33 years since it was shut down, West Jordan City officials hope the factory will start pumping again.
Inspired by Salt Lake City's transformation of the old trolley yards into Trolley Square, the West Jordan City Council recently approved spending $20,000 to study turning the factory into an arts and entertainment center. The money, along with two federal grants of $10,000 each, will pay for the $40,000 study.
"This is the best thing to hit West Jordan in a long time," said West Jordan Mayor Bryan Holladay, but, "it's quite likely that it will be an expensive undertaking."
Holladay said the study is needed to determine if the factory can be seismically upgraded; if not, officials will have to come up with another plan. The city at this point envisions turning the factory into a place where area residents can come and enjoy a full evening of entertainment.
"We are serious about making this a historic attraction for our citizens," said West Jordan City Councilman Rob Bennett. "It will end up being one of the top fun, family-oriented entertainment and cultural offerings for those who come to the Salt Lake Valley."
Bennett said local historians and the Utah Heritage Foundation are trying to have the factory placed on the National Registry of Historic Sites.
No matter how sweet its past or its future, the building has already caused one of the most bitter political fights in the city's history.
Out of concern for the future of the factory in the face of plans to demolish the factory for development and park space, citizens two years ago passed an initiative requiring the city to put to a public vote any commercial or private development in the area. Holladay said because the initiative is still in place, any restaurants and shops that could go into the factory redevelopment will have to be put to a public vote.
But beyond preserving a piece of nostalgia, one Utah historian believes preserving the factory will be a monument to what people have gone through since 1852, when state founder Brigham Young ordered the pioneers to develop their own sugar supply.
"The whole sugar extraction process took many years to figure out," said Kirk Huffaker, assistant director for the Utah Heritage Foundation.
The quest to produce sugar from beets had varied success but mainly managed to produce low-grade molasses. Then, in 1891, with a large crowd on hand at the plant in Lehi to see if a new technique from Hawaii would cause the molasses to crystallize, the first "strike" came just after midnight on Oct. 15, 1891, sparking an operation that would later be named the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company.
Huffaker said the West Jordan factory was one of the largest operations in the company, having produced an estimated 11 million 100-pound bags of sugar in its 55-year history. At one point, almost every family in West Jordan was either involved with the factory or growing sugar beets.
After the factory closed, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took it over and used the silos for grain storage for the church's welfare program until the mid-1980s, when the church sold the factory to West Jordan City.
Huffaker admitted that the factory itself is not an architectural wonder; its significance rests in its historical value.
"History doesn't pick buildings, history happens to people," Huffaker said. The foundation is working with local historians to put together a complete history on the factory and where it fits in Utah's overall sugar history. The information will be sent to the Utah Historical Society and then reviewed by the state Board of History, which will then forward the application to the National Park Service for possible listing.
Huffaker said the listing has no protective value, but is simply an honor title, noting that if city leaders want to sell it or demolish the factory, the historic registry adds no protection, he said.
Holladay said the city will soon accept bids for the structure study. Once the study is completed, the city will discuss what exactly the factory will become.
Holladay said the factory is expected to be the center of a downtown revitalization project that includes a new police station, courts, a business district and park, all centered around the Mid-Jordan TRAX station planned for the area within five years.
For Jorgensen, efforts to preserve the factory warm his heart. He said he would hope the factory would remind younger generations of how West Jordan grew from a small town of 2,500 farming families into the fast-growing city it is now. "It would show them how the city has evolved."
E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com