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Jolly Rancher: a Wheat Ridge icon

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Contributed by: Lenny Ortiz on 12/25/2006

Those of us who grew up in Wheat Ridge and the Fairmount area, remember the smell of the many candy flavors being made at the Jolly Rancher Company on Ward Road. As a child of a gym teacher, who taught at Drake Jr. High, I remember the aroma of the apple candy being made and the white crossed rifles which adorned the front of the maroon colored building.

William ( Bill) Harmson and his wife Dorothy founded Jolly Rancher in Golden and sold their soon-to-be-famous candies from their barn. The name Jolly Rancher was for the western theme of Colorado and for a hotel dubbed the Jolly Miller in their hometown of Minneapolis, Minn. The couple also made and sold chocolate and ice cream, but as the demand for the hard candy peaked, the Harmson's only produce the hard candy. The couple opened a store front in Golden in 1949 on Washington Street and later moved to Wheat Ridge in 1951 as the demand for their famous candy was overwhelming the small Golden store. The most famous candy flavor was cinnamon, later called Fire Stix.

In 1966, the family sold the business to Beatrice Foods, however Bill remained president of Jolly Rancher and retired in 1977. The family remained in control of the company through three generations and the purchase of Jolly Rancher by Leaf in 1983 and by Hershey in 1993. Later in 2002, Hershey closed the plant after 53 years of operation.

After his retirement, Bill Harmson collected Western art. In 2001, Bill and Dorothy donated close to 5,000 pieces of art and American west memorabilia to the Denver Art Museum and donated a large parcel to the Golden Gate Canyon State Park near Golden. Bill Harmson died in 2002 at age of 89 and Dorothy died in 2006 at age 91.

Many artifacts of Jolly Rancher are located in the Golden Pioneer Museum in downtown Golden. The photo of the Wheat Ridge building is from the their site.

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Submitted By: Kevin Villegas

posted on 12/26/2006 @ 2:56:48 PM

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I'll never forget when my mom would take us to the Jolly Rancher factory. I used to love going there to get a few samples of all the flavors.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Lenny Ortiz

Wheat Ridge , CO

Lenny Ortiz has posted 22 stories and 12 comments since joining on 7/27/2006. Lenny Ortiz 's average story rating is 4.68.

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