Photographs of the Arkansas Valley Sugar Beet and Irrigated Land Company

The Arkansas Valley Sugar Beet and Irrigated Land Company combined eastern U.S. wealth, optimism, and engineering skill to irrigate Colorado's arid southeastern plains. The company operated as a subsidiary of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States from 1910 until 1966.

The nationwide sugar beet boom arrived in Colorado in the late 1890s. By 1901, the Oxnard Construction Company of New York had initiated a plan for development of a sugar beet industry in Colorado's Arkansas Valley. The company, associated with the American Beet Sugar Company (later the American Crystal Sugar Company), had been created to construct sugar beet factories. In cooperation with the Equitable Life Assurance Society, which had purchased collateral from bad loans, the Arkansas Valley Sugar Beet and Irrigated Land Company was created to take over the water system of the Great Plains Water Company (formerly the Great Plains Water Storage Company) and the lands owned by the Amity Land Company (formerly Amity Canal and Reservoir Company, then Amity Land and Irrigation Company). With vast lands and what Great Plains claimed in 1899 to be the largest irrigation system of its kind in the world, the foundation for sugar manufacturing was well laid, though the sugar beet was the optimistic part of the endeavor. Following the estate settlement of Equitable's founder and president Henry B. Hyde, the Arkansas Valley Sugar Beet and Irrigated Land Company became a subsidiary of Equitable in 1910.

The Arkansas Valley Sugar Beet and Irrigated Land Company owned the Amity Canal and the Buffalo Canal, along with associated laterals and four reservoirs, and the land that could be watered by the system. The main canal stretched over 100 miles, beginning in Bent County and continuing across Prowers County, nearly parallel to the Arkansas River. Other company facilities, mainly located to the north in Kiowa County, included the Great Plains Reservoirs, which had Osage language names: Nee Sopah, Nee Gronda, Nee Noshe, and Nee Skah. A boom in facility construction occurred in 1902, with ongoing maintenance necessary to deal with occasional floods, including the 1921 Arkansas River flood, the largest in Colorado's recorded history at that time. Numerous photographs were taken of construction and facilities, in part to show growth and activities, but also because the company president and board of directors were in other locations, including New York. The company's Colorado office was in Holly.

Beyond initial attempts at growing and processing sugar beets, the company established the Amity Canal Model Dairy Farm about 1914 to bring in livestock to help maintain the land's fertility. The company focused on Holsteins and highlighted their efforts through Dairy Days Parades. Eventually Equitable, after investing millions of dollars, decided to begin liquidating the holdings gradually, aiming for minimal losses. These efforts caused lengthy lawsuits.

In 1936, the Colorado Supreme Court created the Amity Mutual Irrigation Company by converting the Amity Canal system into a cooperative enterprise. The case precipitating this action was Arkansas Valley Sugar Beet and Irrigated Land Company vs. L. Wirt Markham, et al. As specified in the Amity Mutual Irrigation Company's articles of incorporation, the holdings consisted of the Amity Canal and Reservoir System, which included the Great Plains Reservoirs along with the Kicking Bird, Satanta, Pawnee, and Comanche canals. Additionally, the company retained rights in the Fort Lyon Canal and its diversion works as connected with the Great Plains Reservoirs. Amity Mutual continues to operate out of Holly, Colorado. Following distribution of its other assets, the Arkansas Valley Sugar Beet and Irrigated Land Company was dissolved in 1966.

Additional background on AVSBILC can be found in R. Carlyle Buley's two volume history, The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, 1859-1964 (1967).