INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND IN OHIO

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Shown is the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Company's North Plant in Steubenville, OH. It is now owned by Severstal, who idled their Ohio Valley steel mills in early 2009. Regarding this unfortunate development, Pittsburgh investor Jeff Mindlin told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Those plants just aren't going to be coming back." Let's hope that prediction doesn't come true.

The blast furnaces at W-P's North Plant appear to have gone cold.

Closer view of the furnaces in Steubenville, which is best known as Dean Martin's hometown.

The Market Street bridge over the Ohio River with Steubenville in the background.

St. Peter's Catholic Church in Steubenville

A little down the river from Steubenville is the town of Mingo Junction, OH.

Former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Company's main steel mill in Mingo Junction, Ohio, now owned by Severstal North America, Inc.

The blast furnace at Mingo Junction - I wonder what its name is? Blast furnaces always have a name, like Eliza or Jenny or Amanda. There is also a fairly new electric arc furnace to supplement this operation.

Steps going up the hill in the middle of Mingo-Junction, OH

In this 1942 picture from Chase Brass & Copper Co. in Euclid, OH molten metal is being poured into a mold to form a billet. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection)

Freighter vessels hibernating in front of aggregate processing plants in Fairport Harbor, OH.

Fairport Harbor is frozen over in Winter.

Ruins of the Detroit Steel Co. coke works between Portsmouth and New Boston, Ohio. The steel mill itself closed in 1980 and was demolished in 1989.

After the steel mill closed the coke works continued to be operated under the name New Boston Coke. This operation closed in 2002 but here are the remaining coke ovens and coal processing building that remain. The metal doors on the ovens have been removed, leaving the refractory brick lining of the ovens naked.

Closer view of the coal processing building at the former Detroit Steel Co. coke works on the edge of Portsmouth. From what I have heard all of these industrial remains have been removed now (2009) and replaced by a Wal-Mart, which typifies America's transition from relatively high paying industrial jobs to lower service sector wage jobs. But that is not news.

People living next to smokestacks - Chillicothe, Ohio

Columbus Steel Castings, in south Columbus, Ohio, was formerly known as Buckeye Steel Castings. This steel foundry, which manufactures parts for trains, filed for bankruptcy in 2002, but has been turned around and is rumored to be booming now.

Inside the abandoned Chase Foundry in south Columbus. It was scheduled for demolition when this photo was taken. That's a shame, because this building was built to last. Too bad someone can't come up with another use for it. So much energy and resources went into this building, and now it will be leveled.

The crucible furnace of the foundry.

Detail from inside the Chase Foundry showing sand hoppers. A pair of ironworkers tongs are hanging on the column.

The employees' washroom at the Chase Foundry.

This old industrial facility in Marion, OH must have been Marion Power Shovel, which manufactured some of the largest earth moving equipment (shovels and draglines) of all time. Evidently, the company was eventually abosorbed into Bucyrus International, and, though Marion is still a division of Bucyrus, this facility in Marion was shut down.

Nucor Steel, also in Marion, OH. Signs and banners exhorting work safety are common at industrial facilities.

The back side of Nucor's "mini mill" in Marion, OH.

Detail of Nucor's Marion steel mill, showing the slabs that are melted down in the furnace. There are also stockpiles of scrap at this mill, which are probably blended in with the molten steel from the slabs for their various products, such as sign posts and rebar.

Scrap pile to be melted down in Nucor's furnaces, Marion, Ohio.

Whirlpool dryer factory in Marion, Ohio.

The port of Huron, Erie County, Ohio, on Lake Erie. At one time there were Hulett unloaders here.

The Huron Lime Company plant is visible between piles of taconite at the Huron Ore Dock.

Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway has been connecting the Huron docks with industrial towns like Steubenville and Massillon since the late 19th Century. Their tracks are shown here, along with the defunct Con-Agra grain elevators and the lime plant.

A small portion of the town named Massillon, Stark County, Ohio. Massillon's Rust Belt economy is such that it made the national news recently when an open position for school janitor attracted 700 applicants.

An industrial plant that has seen better days in Massillon. Note the wooden tank.

Though the area has lost industry, Republic Engineered Products still operates a steel mill in Massillon.

Kirk Key Interlock Company, which manufactures several styles of key interlocks, operates out of this historic facility in Massillon.

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Author Joel Garreau calls the Industrial Heartland "The Foundry." He writes, "'The Work ethic,' Daniel T. Rodgers, a University of Wisconsin professor, has written, 'has always been a phenomenon in American life.

'The idea that hard, self-denying labor is the summum bonum of life never cut deeply in the South. It was violated in scores of 19th-century frontier settlements and rich men's ballrooms...'

But it's tough to maintain that posistion in the Foundry. No one, for example, ever lived in Buffalo for the climate. Or in Gary for the scenic vistas. Or in Camden for the recreational opportunities. Or in Wheeling for the beach. Blue-collar workers may drink to oblivion, or load up their Winnebagos for a weekend in northern Michigan, but they do so in response to their work. Welfare is an emotional issue in these highly taxed Foundry cities because its recipients don't work."

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