A holiday landmark once stood at 6190 Martin Way East, where Stones’ Candy Cane Company operated in Lacey for more than 20 years. The Thurston County candy cane story began with Russell O. Stone, his wife Louise and son Rodney, who incorporated the business in December 1948 after earlier success making nuts, mixed candy and candy canes.
Production grew fast. In 1948, the factory made half a million canes and employed 10 men and 30 women during peak months. In 1949, output neared two million, with sales reaching 24 states. Stones’ exhibited locally, including at a Lacey Industrial Exposition in Heritage Hall. Its canes were known for red ribbons, six pinstripes and sizes from small treats to 36-inch giants.
Making them required cooking sugar, water and syrup to 300 degrees, pulling the candy white, adding stripes, cutting lengths and bending each cane before it cracked. Bert Hoard took over in 1961, added machinery in 1965 and reached 14,500 canes per day in 1966. Rising sugar prices and market changes closed the company in 1970; the building was demolished in 2016.
