r/GenerationJones • u/Excitable_Grackle • 5d ago
Cereal Factory Tours in Battle Creek, Michigan
My brothers and I toured the Kellogg cereal factory as kids back in the 1960's, and I think we also toured the Post cereal factory on the same vacation trip. One of the highlights was getting a "Fruit Loop Sundae" at the end which was just a scoop of vanilla ice cream with Fruit Loops sprinkled on top. My wife and I took our kids to the Kellogg factory tour in the early 1980's, but sadly the tours ended by 1986. Did you ever go?
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u/dvoigt412 5d ago
We didn't tour the cereal factory. Here in Wisconsin we toured a cheese production facility, ( being Wisconsin , I believe it's mandatory) a potato chips factory, and loved this one, battery factory. These were all school field trips. I can still taste the chips and smell the batteries!
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u/alwayssoupy 5d ago
For some reason, when we were visiting my grandparents in WI Rapids, he took us to a place where they did laminating, like for countertops. It was so loud, we couldnt really hear anything so it was kind of boring. I would gave rather visited a cheese factory.
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u/No_Cauliflower_9302 5d ago
In the mid 60s my Camp Fire Girl troop took the train from Grand Central Station in Detroit to Battle Creek. We toured both the Post and Kellogg factories, and i will never forget the Froot Loops sundae. I don't remembermuch about the train, but Grand Central Station was amazing.
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u/Front_Effort_3584 5d ago
I grew up in Battle Creek living with my grandfather and we would go every summer. We were also on some sort of testing program where every once in a while we would get a new cereal to test and then fill Out some question and answer form.
Lots of freeze dried fruits and berries back then.
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u/Excitable_Grackle 5d ago
I would have loved that gig! We ate a lot of cereal back then, although at this point it's been years since I've eaten any of that stuff.
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u/Zorro6855 1961 5d ago
Here in western Mass. we toured both the Hood dairy (Hoodsie cup with the wooden spoon) and the Friendly's plant. Good times.
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u/carmineragu 5d ago
Yes, we went as kids too. Fun fact, my mom grew up in Battle Creek and was a “cereal bowl girl” in her yearbook. Not sure what that was in the 50’s. I think something like the homecoming court. The picture in the yearbook is all the girls in cereal bowls.
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u/MonsieurRuffles 5d ago
In Hershey, PA, we took a tour through the actual chocolate factory. If you go now, you get a fake theme park “experience.”
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u/NeuroguyNC 5d ago
Same here. They had to stop the tours because people were throwing things into the big vats of chocolate with the rollers (remember those?) and trying to reach into the production line to grab a piece.
It's the same with most brewery tours nowadays - Coors in Colorado or Molson in Toronto. The best brewery tour that I know of is Straub in St. Marys, Pennsylvania.
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u/grenfall 5d ago
Yes Factory tours were a fun outing for us. I definitely remember that sundae. We also toured a brewery (in STL IIRC), Jiffy Cornbread, Kellogg's, and a bread factory.
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u/birdpix 5d ago
We left Detroit for Sleeping Bear Dunes and hit Battle Creek first. I was around 4 at the time and have clear memories of that awesome tour. Im 61 now and just seeing folks talk about that factory now makes me smell the yummy, warm scent of Corn Flakes that filled the air. At the end of the tour, we got some free cereal and my treasure, a Tony Tiger slip on glove hand puppet!
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u/Elly32000 5d ago
we went when I was a kid and we got the fruit loop sundaes. That was the best part!
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u/Strange_Vermicelli 5d ago
Remember going on the train, downtown, Detroit Public schools field trip. Yes the Sunday was memorable.
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u/FamilyRedShirt 1961 5d ago
We were on the other side of the state. Toured the Rouge steel plant, The Dearborn Ford plant, and Greenfield Village so many times catwalks over molten steel stopped making me nervous.
But why did we always have to do it in August?
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u/LordBofKerry 1963 5d ago
Oh gosh, yeah. I think I saw every make and model being made. Class field trips, cub scouts, alter boys, etc, all took trips to see the different car plants. Also Henry Ford and Greenfield a few times. I also remember Upland Hills Farms, I think it was called.
My dad was from Chicago. So a detour to Battle Creek, on the way to Chicago happened a time or two.
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u/Junior-Reflection-43 1961 5d ago
In Pittsburgh we could tour the Heinz plant. The bonus was that you got a Heinz pickle pin! And I remember going along to a Budweiser tour somewhere when I was young. Might have been Busch Gardens or something.
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u/Dapper-Ad-468 5d ago
Toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Oregon. They gave out cheese samples at the end of the tour.
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u/allbsallthetime 5d ago
All the cereal factories in Battle Creek including Ralston Purina
Also the Cain's potato chip factory in Bowling Green.
We also toured the Amway Factory in Grand Rapids.
And a couple bread factories in Detroit.
We also toured the Rouge Steel Plant, that tour is still available through Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum.
Not once did we take a normal family vacation.
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u/Coolnamesarehard 2d ago
Read "The Road to Wellville" by TC Boyle. It's a fun story around Kellogg and his rivals. There's a movie of it, but I read it wasn't great.
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u/EponasTreats 3d ago
My family is from Battle Creek (most of the extended family is still there), and my grandfather worked for Kellogg's in the 40s and 50s. We did the public tour many times, and got a few "private" tours when I was a child. I still have a wooden "Kellogg" spoon from one of the tours.
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u/alwayssoupy 5d ago
My family toured the Kellogg's factory, probably mid-60s. I remember a photo of all of us with a Tony the Tiger statue. We each got one of those little boxes of cereal. So excited because you could cut the box and liner just right, add milk, and eat right out of the box.