ORANGE COUNTY ALMANAC : Sugar Beaten
The “dawn of prosperity,” as a local newspaper called it, came to Los Alamitos in 1897, when a sugar factory opened.
For nearly three decades the industry was the lifeblood of the town. Immigrant families from Europe, especially Belgium, grew sugar beets until the 1920s, when worms wiped out the crops.
Source: “Early Los Alamitos,” by the Los Alamitos Museum Assn.
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