All of the enterprises started by the Saints in early Utah were not successful. One of the most notable failures was the Deseret Manufacturing Company organized in 1852 to refine sugar from sugar beets. John Taylor, on a mission in Europe, was given the job of buying the necessary machinery from a firm in Liverpool at a cost of $12,500. Transporting the machinery from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City required fifty two teams. Repeated failures by the quarter million dollar company, partially the result of some vital missing machinery, resulted in a takeover by the Church, but the firm still folded from failure to produce the desired quality sugar. The Church was able to produce sugar, however, from a factory established on Canyon Creek in the Sugar House Ward.
Roberts, Life of John Taylor, p. 240.
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