Milton Hershey, the famous American chocolatier and businessman, visited Cuba in 1916. Hershey decided to buy sugar plantations and mills in Cuba to supply the growing Pennsylvania-based
Hershey Company. The sugar refinery was nationalized, wages were lowered, and the golf course was demolished. The mill was closed in 2002 under the pretense that the factory had become inefficient. Residents still refer to the town as Hershey (pronounced as her-see) and Hershey signs still hang at the town's train station. ==Geography==