A thought provoking photographic elegy to the American steel industry.

Salem Straub

Salem Straub

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Oct 20, 2008
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I was on a Google tangent when I stumbled across this site. There is a lot of amazing history in these pages. I am one of those who would love to be a rust belt tourist... now I kind of can.

http://www.coalcampusa.com/rustbelt/pa/pa.htm

I'm somewhat of a treehugger personally, but the metal worker and the pragmatist in me just kind of scream inside when I see these pics of our steel and ironworks rusting, ruined, and scrapped. What are we THINKING?
 
wow yeah...... and listen to Bruce Springteen's Youngstown. This country was made great by the steel industry (amount other things) and now probably most steel is imported.
 
Great thread with awesome photos. There's a lot of history there.
 
Having lived in or near Allentown, PA (think Billy Joel) for twenty years, I've seen firsthand the rise and fall of neighboring Bethlehem Steel. Check out Joel's lyrics - he also lived close to "The Steel" in his younger days and his descriptions are, unfortunately, accurate.
 
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Pittsburgh is a city whose economic base collapsed but has been successfully reborn unlike so many others.
I knew a guy who worked for many years in the USS coke works -and lived to 91 !
 
My brother and I work at the steel making facility formerly known as Bethlehem Steel, in Burns Harbor, IN. My father works in the USS facility in Gary, IN. Even with the various upgrades over the last few years (structures, technologies, equipment, etc...), there's still something very awe inspiring about walking through the various production areas and seeing all the massive equipement (most of the time) working together in harmony to produce a finished product. Much of the original equipment, structures, and history is still very much intact, and never ceases to amaze me.

I especially enjoy talking to some of the older workers that were there, pretty much at the beginning, and know how steel used to be made.

And as far as tree hugging goes, you'd be quite surprised to learn how "green" our american steel producing facilities actually are. As far as waste is concerned, steel making is quite efficient, being able to re-use and recycle 90%+ of our waste and scrap, not to mention steel that's already seen decades of use.

As far as the overall "carbon footprint" is concerned, it's actually much less than it used to be, thanks to new technologies and stricter EPA regulations. ;)
 
It's good to hear that we're still producing something, anyway. It must be a fraction of our former output, though. Will the bulk of world iron and steel always be smelted in whatever country is the irresponsible industrial titan of the day?

It seems to me that since we have stricter regulations and try to do things like make steel in a more conscious fashion, countries like China that just don't give a $#@% about their populations do what we used to. Namely, run facilities the size of small cities that pollute like crazy.

I wonder how long China will be able to sustain such reckless industry. Ultimately, the iron will outlive both of our empires and will still be getting remelted, cast and wrought into things we can't even imagine, 1000 years from now.
 
India us a big player in the steel biz too. Lakshmi Mital, The VERY rich man who bought Bernie Eccelsotne's "old" house in one of the poshest areas of London for $128 million a few years back (house takes up an entire city block in Kensington Palace Gardens and he wins two more properties in the hood....now worth 500 million pounds!!!!) made his $20 billions in the steel business Arcelor-Mital and his company is now the largest steel company in the world and he just bought 20% of Tottenham Hotspur.
 
Thanks for posting that link Salem !

I grew up in NE Ohio and my Dad was a steel worker from when he returned from the DMZ in '72 up until some of the last mills closed in the late 90's.

You really took me back home with this post man ! I know nearly every place in the Ohio pages and alot of the places in western PA. also. Did ALOT of runnin around when I was young and spent a few years working on the road removing asbestos after high school which entailed spending time in many towns throughout ohio and pa so I got to see alot of the country in that area.

The vast majority of steel production has gone to China which blows my mind that it's cheaper to ship scrap to China for processing and ship it back as raw materials. The industry in NE Ohio had a long and painful death with companies closing, re-opening, being bought out and re-opened by forien interests and eventually closing again.

The rust belt is a beautiful place in many ways and not just for us steel junkies. I think I most enjoyed all the places out of town and all the old barns from the mid to late 1800's.

If you go to the second page for Ohio thats all in the area surrounding where I grew up. Youngstown, Niles, Warren are all within about 25 miles from my parents house in Newton Falls. The Ironman statue is at a scrapyard about 4 miles from my brothers house in Niles and I've probably driven past it 1000 times and one of my aunts ex-boyfriends works there to this day.

Thanks again for for posting the link you really brought back some memories buddy !

Have a great day ! Josh
 
I'm glad you all enjoyed it. Warren, huh Josh? I have several friends from that neck of the woods. Rosequists, a Forsgren and a Baxter.
 
Salem,

I'm what would locally be called a "Portage County Boy" My folks live a stones throw over the Trumbull county line but actually in Portage county.

The area between Warren and Ravenna Ohio is considered the sticks to those big city boys. Needless to say we didn't get along well with the city folks so we ran the countryside and kept to ourselves mostly so I didn't personally know alot of folks from Warren even though my Grandparents all lived there and my Mom and her siblings all went to school there.

Our little slice of Southeast Portage County was a great place to grow up. Kinda like a country song ;)

-Josh
 
Salem, I don't know whether it is pride or sadness that dominates after going through these pages. What a tangle of regional history and of individual lives spent in the "service of".

Either way, your head is in the right place once again. Thanks for posting this. awl
 
Why on earth did we ever stop building in brick?

To see anything with that much history in America sitting there, makes me hurt. There are some really classic structures there, that if I could set up shop in them I think I would live to be a very old man.
 
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