Recently, an Easter candy clearance display stocked with bags of Dum Dum suckers flashed me back to a weekend trip with a college teammate from Bryan.

Candy was far from the focus of our trip to Bryan, but I discovered a hidden treasure in this small northwestern town. They were the self-anointed lollipop capital of the world.

I returned there many years later with family and friends this time. We were going to explore Dum Dum suckers in depth. The town had changed but the lollipop story remained pretty much unchanged.

Arthur Spangler earned $450 from his paper route. He did not buy an iPod with it, or spend it on an Xbox live subscription — not because those things weren’t available in 1916, but because he bought a factory instead.

He bought a little factory in a small town in Ohio that made baking powder. Soon, he added sugar. Before long, Arthur was making candy. Today, his company in Bryan makes all of the Dum Dum Lollipops in the world, along with all of the candy canes in the United States.

We heeded their advice to grab our kids, and sweet tooth, and head to the Spangler Candy Company.

We were going to take a ride on the Dum Dum Trolley as we toured the Candy Museum and factory, where they make ten million Dum Dum Lollipops each day.

Because adding that red stripe to the candy cane only is done by hand, Spangler spends 3-4 months training its employees on the fine art of stretching and pulling the candy log. Also because of the time it takes to make a single candy cane, Spangler makes candy canes all year long, 3 million each day.

Putting that stripe on the candy cane is the one job that college students want to learn each summer; yet few can master the technique. In addition to candy canes and Dum Dums, Spangler makes a half a million Saf-T-Pops, and 32 thousand pounds of the banana flavored Circus Peanuts.

This candy factory is as much a museum tour as it is a candy factory tour.

When Arthur Spangler bought the factory in 1906 for $450 with his newspaper route money, the company made only baking powder.

Vintage baking tins of Spangler products are encased behind glass, along with black and white Spangler photos, and the original vinyl 45 record of The Lollipop Song, recorded in 1959 by Johnny Christmas and the Dynamics.

Our favorite part of the trolley tour took us through the Portland Street addition, where you can hear the plink of the freshly-made Dum Dums hitting the white metal conveyer belt, as they drop from the second floor kitchen to the tables, ready for inspection. Ten-thousand Dum Dums come ker-plunking down the chute each minute.

The kitchens are “off-limits” for the tour, for health reasons, but detailed video shows each phase of the candy mixing, stretching and pulling and how this giant blob of hot, syrupy goo becomes a perfect piece of hard candy.

You can tour Spangler from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Friday. In the winter, tours are only Wednesday through Friday. Factory tour prices are adults $5, seniors $4, children 6-18 years $3 and children 5 and under free with paid adult admission.

After the tour based on the glowing recommendations from the many smiling faces at the candy store we headed over to Seasons, an all day-breakfast coffe shop bistro in downtown Bryan. This Main Street food stop offered a robust family pleasing menu.

The skillet breakfast, with the fried eggs, hash browns and toast hit the spot for my ravenous teenager.

Yet, his eyes were certainly bigger than his stomach. We took a to-go box home. Seasons accommodated my “picky eater” who ordered a Panini, ungrilled, with only lettuce, onions, provolone and cheddar.

Before you leave Spangler or Seasons, be sure to ask for directions to Bryan’s Imagination Station — an outdoor play ground that incorporates rubber tires, wooden structures, castles and mazes. It’s the ideal spot to stretch your legs before heading back home.

For additional information on what else there is to see and do in Bryan visit www.bryanchamber.org/tourism. Updated tour information is located at www.dumdumpops.com/about-us/factory-tours.

Blossoming back home in the River Cities is Ironton In Bloom’s annual “Over the Backyard Fence” tour.

On Sunday, June 11, between 1-4 p.m. you will have the opportunity to visit and inspect ten Ironton backyard gardens.

Hosts will be at the sites and at a few locations plant experts will be available to answer your questions.

Tickets are $12 and can be purchased in advance from Ironton In Bloom members and at Weber’s Florist or Unger’s Shoes.

Tickets will also be available on the day of the event at the Lawrence County Museum. For additional information you can contact them at 740-550-5655.

Shop local! Shop small! Support small business!
Got travel? Email Steve Call at the travelprofessor@gmail.com or dial 740-550-9540