SHERIDAN, Wyo.—When Holly Seed moved into Sheridan in 1915, they were expanding rapidly.
The company was then called Holly Sugar.
They then expanded into Worland and Torrington, making a foothold in Wyoming communities.
Now, more than 100 years after the company put down roots in this community, Holly Seed doesn’t do business in Sheridan.
But that isn’t keeping Mark Law, general manager of seed operations, from wanting to make a difference locally.
“In the last five years or so I’ve (rededicated) my effort to be a little more engaged in the community,” Law said.
Part of this is doing more community sponsorship.
“We’ll be announcing that we’re going to donate $100 for every year we’ve been open to the Antelope Butte Foundation,” Law said. “As good citizens, even though we don’t have customers here we should do a little more for the community.”
Holly Seed started in Holly, Colo., in 1905. The “Holly” name was kept because founder Kenneth Schley liked the name, as holly berries are traditional symbols of friendship and good cheer.
The main office that exists today was built as an agricultural research station, and now works as a seed development operation.
Law said the last sugar was produced in 1942 at the Sheridan factory, following World War II.
“They shut it down right before WWII, as I understand it, and shortly thereafter during the war they started it back up again because there was a lot of rationing of commodities,” Law said. “Even though maybe it wasn’t as economical, it was more of a war effort by the company.”
While sugar processing ended locally with a war, it all started with a war as well.
Sugarbeet production is a result of the Napoleonic Wars, as European nations wouldn’t trade with France.
“Napoleon said, ‘We gotta figure out some place to get sugar because we’re not getting it from India, and all of those tropical areas,’” Law said.
Western Europe has had a strong interest in sugarbeet production from the get-go, and following WWII sugarbeet development was subsidized in much of western Europe.
“Long story short, you ended up with three genetics companies that are really left in the world,” Law said. “One’s in Germany, one’s in Switzerland and one’s in Belgium.”
Today, Holly Seed shares an alliance with the Belgium company SESVanderHave and they have become a leading source of varieties adapted in many sugar beet growing areas around the world.
In 2005, Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative, a company owned by family farmers in Minnesota, purchased Holly Seed.
During this time period, Holly Seed has been developing seed locally and although it has become a kind of multinational company, the roots have stayed in Sheridan.
While the 100 years working in this community were recently celebrated with an open house, Holly Seed has made it obvious they want to be around for 100 more.
Source: thesheridanpress.com