Irrigation Store, 3397 US Highway 86, Imperial, CA 92251, US

Spreckels Sugar Company is a sugar beet refiner that for many years controlled much of the United States West Coast refined sugar market. Entrepreneur, industrialist, newspaper publisher and railroad executive Claus Spreckels established Spreckels Sugar in the late 1800s. Imperial Holly, also known as Imperial Sugar Company, acquired the company in 1996. Spreckels founded the company in the town of Spreckels, Calif., just south of Salinas. When it was completed in 1899, Factory 1 was one of the largest sugar refineries in the world. Shipping to and from the plant was mostly by a private Spreckels-owned narrow-gauge railroad system to and from the docks at Moss Landing, Calif. Spreckels Sugar Company has a location in Brawley, Calif.