 Stone quarrying, sugar-beet farming, and the slaughter of sheep were among the area's earliest industries.Beet tops, an industry supported by the college and its associated agricultural experiment station, proved to be an excellent and abundant food for local sheep, and by the early 1900s the area was being referred to as the "Lamb feeding capital of the world".In 1901 the Great Western sugar processing plant was built in the neighboring city of Loveland.