C&On Friday, at exactly 10:25 a.m., the whistle will blow at the C&H Sugar plant, marking 100 years of sugar refining in Crockett.
"That's the time it started, 100 years ago, March 10, 1906," said Keith Olsen, the historian at the Crockett Historical Museum on Loring Avenue across the Union Pacific Railroad tracks from the C&H truck entrance. The museum is in Crockett's former railroad depot, which is owned by C&H, as were once most of Crockett's public buildings. Crockett early in the last century was virtually a company town, employing much of the working-age population directly and providing work to others indirectly through businesses that catered to C&H and local needs.
C&H also owned and operated buildings and parks and sponsored clubs, parades, picnics, festivals and other social events. At its peak, it employed about 2,300 people. But in the latter half of the century, with increased mechanization and globalization of the sugar business, C&H retrenched its social functions. About 600 people work at C&H today, and few of those are Crockett residents.
But the history of C&H still largely defines the town. The museum is the repository of a lot of it.
In its C&H section, the museum exhibits old sugar boxes, sugar barrel photos, magazines, documents, photos and other and artifacts. Retired C&H workers who still live in town frequently hang out at the museum, where they revel in their role of "living history," recounting how sugar used to be processed: sandy-textured, raw sugar was mixed in big bins into a syrup and put through filters and centrifuges to separate the molasses from a clear liquid, which would be boiled, leaving the crystallized sugar.
On Friday, former plant manager Jon Wolthuis and current plant manager Charles Nelson will offer toasts. There will be a birthday cake with the C&H logo and champagne and sparkling cider.
"We've invited all past employees and retirees and anybody else," Olsen said.
On Saturday, there will be a celebration in the C&H-owned parking lot across the street from the museum with finger foods and desserts and activities under big tents. Some C&H officials are expected to participate, Olsen said.
Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@cctimes.com.H Sugar Co. celebrates century
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