Caro runs the oldest sugarbeet factory in America — and it's still setting records

Every fall, Caro does something no other town in America can claim: it fires up the nation’s oldest operating sugarbeet factory and runs it around the clock. The plant on the edge of town has been slicing Thumb-grown beets since 1899, and it is anything but a relic — in the 2023-24 “campaign” (the industry’s word for the fall processing run) Caro’s crew set six production records, including a single-day slice of more than 4,800 tons, and was named Michigan Sugar’s Campaign Champion factory.

That makes Caro the working heart of an industry that defines the Thumb. The flat, dark farmland around town grows sugarbeets the size of footballs, farmer-owners deliver them by the truckload from October into winter, and the sweet steam over the factory is the county seat’s seasonal weather. Between the beet campaign, the county fair, and its role as Tuscola’s courthouse town, Caro is the kind of place that still makes and grows real things — and has the 125-year streak to prove it.