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All the United States California Santa Maria Betteravia Sugar Plant
Betteravia Sugar Plant is permanently closed.

This entry remains in the Atlas as a record of its history, but it is no longer accessible to visitors.

Betteravia Sugar Plant

Factory that once supported an entire company town of 350.

Santa Maria, California

Added By
Brett Tracy
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Abandoned sugar silos in 2009. (Wikimedia Commons)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Betterav...
Inside the Union Sugar factory, sometime between 1910 and 1920. (Wikimedia Commons)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteravia,_C...
Rust everywhere   Patrik D'haeseleer
Inside the processing plant (2015)   Patrik D'haeseleer
The furnace stack (2015)   Patrik D'haeseleer
Furnace stack in background, circa 2013   Avoiding Regret
Silos in background, circa 2013   Avoiding Regret
Furnace stack in foreground, silos in background (circa 2013)   Avoiding Regret
Inside of the processing plant (2015)   Patrik D'haeseleer
Silos (circa 2013)   Avoiding Regret
Abandoned files and instruction manuals (2015)   Patrik D'haeseleer
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About

The now defunct company town of Betteravia, a name that refers to the French word for beet root, at one time supported a community of 350 residents.

Many were employees at the Union Sugar Company (now a part of Sara Lee Corporation), which persisted in various forms from around the turn of the 20th century until closing permanently in 1993. The facility extracted sucrose from sugar beets, a highly engineered tuber from which thirty percent of the world’s sugar is derived.

It lasted until 1993 (five years after a major dust explosion resulted in the injury of several employees), but most of the residents moved out of the town of Betteravia in the 1950s after the Union Sugar Company decided that it didn't want to remain in the renting business. The homes were sold for about $50 each.

While most of the town’s 65 cottages and other structures (a schoolhouse, a church, a hotel, a post office, a general store, a gasoline station, a fire department, and an amusement hall) were either moved or razed in the 1960s, the site still boasts two enormous hermetically sealed silos, a more or less intact refinery building, and a towering furnace stack.

Related Tags

Architectural Oddities Ruins Company Town Architecture

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The plant is on private property and closed to the public.

Community Contributors

Added By

btracy

Edited By

patrikd, leiris, nbj914

  • patrikd
  • leiris
  • nbj914

Published

April 20, 2011

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Sources
  • Wikipedia: Betteravia, California: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteravia,_California
  • Urban Exploration Resource: Ghost Town of Betteravia: http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=25808
  • CaneSIG: USA - Betteravia, CA: http://www.zelmeroz.com/canesig/industry/usa/usabetteravia.htm
Betteravia Sugar Plant
Santa Maria, California, 93458
United States
34.918097, -120.5169

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