A second printing of Footprints in the Sugar: A History of the Great Western Sugar Company has been completed, and copies are now available. The first printing of the 848-page volume sold out in 13 months, prompting Hamilton Bates Publishers to commission a second.

     Authored by Candy Hamilton, the book traces the rich saga of Great Western from its beginnings more than a century ago, through its growth into a major beet processor with eventually more than two dozen factories around the sugar beet districts of Colorado, Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming (plus Ohio and Kansas). The book also chronicles Great Western’s later struggles, including the period when it was owned by the Hunt brothers, who took the once-proud company into bankruptcy during the mid-1980s.
     Richly illustrated, Footprints in the Sugar also discusses other players in the region’s sugarbeet industry, including the German-Russian families so identified with beets in the West; the Mexican (and Japanese) migrant worker community; and the role of World War II German prisoners of war.
     Persons interested in ordering copies of the 8-1/2 x 11-inch hardcover Footprints in the Sugar can do so by contacting Hamilton Bates Publishers, 251 W. Idaho Ave., #14, Ontario, OR 97914. Cost is $79.95 per copy, plus postage and handling. Payment is by check or money order only.
     For more information on this book, visit www.gwsfootprints.com, or email candy@gwsfootprints.com.