Segrams Alcohol Plant Traditional Cache
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Ammo can cache located at the remains of the World's largest potato alcohol distillery opperated by Clarke Distilleries and Seagrams located in Caribou. You will need to bring a pencil to sign the log as I forgot to put one in the cache.
Back in 1946, when Caribou was noted for being the largest potato shipping town in the World, it became home to the World's largest potato alcohol plant. At the time, there was only one other plant in the United States, located in Idaho Falls, Idaho. To prevent the radiator on cars and trucks from freezing in the cold wintery weather--Aroostook potato alcohol was employed. The high school coach and the trainers of big league baseball clubs used the liquid as a rub down for their athletes who had aching muscles. THe corner druggest or the local 5 & 10 had many items containing alcohol made from potatoes. Of course, you can't forget the beverages such as vodka made from the potatoes. The plant produced roughly 10,000 gallons per day and the government reaped great benefits from the plant recieving $90,000 per day in taxes which figues out to be around $32,000,000 in a years time. A pretty fair sum from a town the size of Caribou. Daily potato input was between 5,000 and 6,000 barrels of potatoes per day during the busy seasons and approximately 3,500 during other times. In addition to those barrels, an additional 1,500 to 2,00 barrels were stored in dehydration forms for use during the summer months. THe dehydrated potatoes would take only 1/8 the space required by the bulk. The plant operated 365 days a year. The recieving platform of the plant had space reserved for 5 trucks that dumped potatoes on conveyor belts that all stated the process of making the alcohol. From there, the potatoes were taken to huge washing machines at a rate of 300 barrels per hour. Once washed, the potatoes were ready to be made into alcohol. From the washing machines, the potatoes would be taken to a weight hopper, then to 1 of 3 large steam cookers that each would hold as many as 30,000 pounds of potatoes. During the 1 hour cooking time of the potatoes, malt would be mixed with water in another tank. The potatoes would then be mixed with the malt mixture and yeast in the fermentation tanks where the mixture would stay for 32 to 38 hours. Each of the 5 such tanks would hold 42,000 gallons. After the proper fermention had taken placed, the liquid would proceed to the seperation tanks where the impure alcohol would be taken from the mix. The alcohol then would be ready for the storage tanks.
A few year later, in 1948, the plant closed it's doors. It was believed it closed because they couldn't afford to pay the government the awful taxes and have enough money to pay the wages for 30 to 50 employed men. In 1974, the distillery burned down. It took firefighters 18 hours to put out the fire. Because the city didn't have fire hydrants on the far side of the river, firemen had to string 2 1/2 hose across the Fort Fairfield bridge.
Please replace and hide cache back where you found it so other may enjoy finding it.
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