Remembering Fort Collins’ Former Pickle Factory

Today, The Choice City is widely known for its craft beer scene; over 20 years have passed since there was a company producing pickles in Fort Collins. Now, the site is a local solar array for locals to produce solar energy, but don't have the space.

I believe Loveland is widely known for once having a sugar factory, but I don't think a lot of folks know that pickles were once processed at a plant near Riverside and Mulberry in Fort Collins. The Dreher Pickle Plant was in operation from about 1921 until 1988. It's hard to imagine all the cucumbers that were transformed into pickles through all those years.

READ MORE: Loveland's Giant Molasses Spill of 1990

About a year after shutting down, the site had a fire that destroyed most of the buildings; then the area sat dormant. In 1995 the City of Fort Collins decided to purchase the property from its then-owner for $300,000.

The city didn't really know what exactly to do with the property until they landed on the idea of turning it into a community solar array, (which they'd been trying to find a location for, for some time.) Being such a busy intersection, you can imagine the amount of businesses/companies that wanted to take over that space.

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Today, the four-acre 620 kilowatt Riverside Solar Community Project has over 2,000 panels serving over 200 citizen-subscribers. Though it's sold out, you can get on the list for when a set of panels becomes available. From cucumbers to pickles; from pickles to power. Pretty neat.