Pleasant Grove Canning Company

Although no longer standing, the Pleasant Grove Canning Company was once a thriving business, canning large quantities of locally-grown produce and distributing it to many places around the country.

The Pleasant Grove Canning Company, established in 1919 in Orem, Utah, marked a significant milestone as the town’s inaugural major industry. The canning industry had been growing in the United States for about 50 years before the Pleasant Grove Canning Company was created. By the time it opened, the preservation of produce through canning had been perfected. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, there was little industry in Utah County, but the canning company took in produce from local farmers and farmers of the Provo Bench, canning, among other things, 75,000 cases of tomato paste. The company sold the tomato paste to the Campbell Soup Company.  

The canning company underwent substantial changes in subsequent years as the industry in the state evolved.  In 1960, the Pleasant Grove Canning Company merged with Ogden’s Utah Canning Company and it became known as the Orem Plant of Utah Packers. Eventually, the decision was made to sell the company. In 1972, the company was sold to Booth Distributing Inc. and they used the building as a warehouse. 

Over the ensuing decades, the building was sold multiple times to different owners. In 1992, the once-thriving structure had fallen into disrepair and deemed a hazard by the city of Orem. Consequently, in 1993, the building was demolished, leaving behind only memories and a historic marker commemorating the site of the former Orem landmark.

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