america's steel industry is not what it once was to put things mildly you see the area around the
great lakes had a moniker the rust belt because of the sheer amount of steel that came out of
the region followed by a rapid onset of urban decay as the steel mills have gone silent many
of the population centers have become equally quiet there is no greater example of this
unfortunate development than gary indiana once the beating heart of america's thundering industry
it has now become little more than a ghost town but how did this happen how did the city that once
thrived become so empty today we will find out as we travel through the rise and fall
of gary indiana i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
the city itself is barely over 100 years old founded in 1906 named after judge albert h
gary a co-founder of the company employing most of the town's initial population the city's original
location was a vast mass of swampland which appears to be a running theme in rust belt cities
one of the city's first structures was the gary steelworks which drew in workers from
all across the country in with its promises of employment in the cutting-edge steel mill and for
a more comprehensive context we should probably discuss the development of the u.s steel industry
you see america always had a raw material industry primarily because of how rich the countryside was
in natural resources the iron deposits around the great lakes proved invaluable in providing tools
for the young nation and the coal veins in pennsylvania kept its furnaces bright
and its homes warm the great lakes themselves remain a significant source of water and transport
to this very day with all these factors combined it's a small wonder that the area became the heart
of america's heavy industry however iron was not what this area was known for in the 1900s
after the civil war where america's lack of industrial development compared to europe
was on full display the nation had to change as into the 1880s iron products were in high
demand and technological advancements lowered the cost of iron and increased its quality by
this point america's steel industry was coming into its own and growing at a never before seen
speed come the turn of the century america's steel production had gone from 1.25 million tons in 1880
to well over 10 million and within the next decade that number hit
24 million tons making the united states the unquestionable global leader in steel production
but what exactly went into making steel and why were whole towns founded for the sole purpose of
creating it steel's primary component is iron and by 1880 it had become feasible to produce it in
large quantities at a profit the primary process in use since the 1860s was the bessemer process
where a cylindrical 20-foot tall furnace has air blown in through openings in the bottom heating
silicon manganese and carbon of which the former two join the slag and the latter expels in the
exhaust the result is an ingot of steel used in the forge or the rolling mill however the american
steel industry hit its stride with the open hearth furnace method here the hearth is not a large pot
but a shallow rectangle with several rectangular openings and water cooled doors used for changing
scrap and iron adding whatever agents are needed removing slag testing and repairing on the other
side a tap hole and spout can empty into ladles which the remaining walls use for gas and air
maintaining chemical balance and acting as burners if needed the hearth gets a limestone flux coat
to start the process with scrap changed atop it getting the furnace to full heat can take
up to three hours with the burners and oxygen lenses melting the scrap by the end of the heating
process when melted blast furnace iron enters into the mix at a general proportion from sixty
percent iron to forty scrap carbon mixes with the oxidizing scrap creating a carbon monoxide boil
mixing the bath and achieving a high heat transfer in its two to three hour duration during this
the carbon oxidizes and lowers the slag is flushed out and the temperature rises again the
temperature rise causes the limestone to release carbon dioxide beginning the lime boil which has
a similar stirring effect to the carbon monoxide boil after an hour or so the lime releases through
the melt and dissolves into slag flux and alloy then enters the melt to refine it adding carbon
and oxygen as needed to maintain the desired carbon balance when the temperature and the
chemical composition is at the optimal range the tap hole blasts open with a small explosive charge
starting the six to nine hour tap process where the metal exits the furnace after all is said and
done an hour of inspection cleaning and repairs usually occur while it is a much more complex
process and this doesn't even cover its variations its slower pace makes it much easier to control
resulting in a much higher quality of product and ease of recycling however this complexity needs
constant oversight and maintenance meaning that the steel mills needed to employ many
people this industrial revolution put the country at the forefront of the world's economic stage
and with all the newly available steel cities and urban infrastructure had plenty of room to grow
with lots of materials to make railroads bridges factories buildings and by the roaring twenties
household appliances and motor vehicles as a result settlements across the country became
towns and towns became cities and some cities became metropolitan population centers
it's here that gary indiana really started to hit its stride with the u.s steel industry purchasing
nearly 10 000 acres of swampland on the southern edge of lake michigan the gary works was state of
the art in open hearth furnace steel forging but with that said we need to acknowledge that gary's
early days were not as glorious as they may seem oddly the city's founders were not settlers but a
massive steel corporation gary was not unique in this regard several factory towns existed
throughout the rust belt and common themes found throughout these factory towns included
corruption and significant economic class division european immigrants and african americans fleeing
southern oppression flocked to these towns in mass resulting in a highly segregated society this
state of affairs could not continue the city's employees had very few legal protections if any
and frequently worked 12-hour shifts for pay that did not reflect the work they did these tensions
culminated in the great strike of 1919 where steel workers across the country rose in protest
taking the picket lines and demanding better conditions the employees of the gary steelworks
took part in these strikes as well adding to more than 365 000 striking workers these strikes forced
the country's steel industry into a significantly compromised state and called the nation's
attention however due to several factors including but not limited to racial tensions weakness of the
workers union and fear of the socialism in russia that birthed the soviet union the companies broke
the strikes and resumed production as the 1920s arrived the new inventions of the decade brought
in a significantly increased amount of steel orders the gary works in this decade employed
over 16 000 workers to operate 12 blast furnaces at the largest steel plant in the entire country
well the great depression lessened its heights the avent of world war ii saw its production hit
its greatest heights yet but let's see what an expert on world war ii has to say on the matter
while the united states would not enter world war ii until december 7 1941 it was by no means idle
in the time before the day that lives on in infamy before that america served as the world's arsenal
of democracy through lendley's programs the united states armed the soldiers of the allied powers
allowing them to continue the fight against fascism even when the situation seemed at its most
dire u.s steel was heavily involved in these support programs supplying much of the steel
exported to the allies and as a result its largest steel mill in gary indiana had a lot of work on
his hands when america did enter the fray most of the men that worked at steel mill joined service
with the us military leaving their positions vacant on the home front as a result the women of
gary took up the mantle making sure its furnaces were operating at their highest efficiency in
these years u.s steel began the climb to its peak production and met its greatest employment in 1943
with over 340 000 employees across the country a large part of which worked in the gary works
it is during this time gary gains the title of the magic city as the heights it hit in the 1940s only
increased with the influx of economic activity in the city it became home to architecture and
entertainment that was just as state of the art as the gary works were its economy was flourishing
and its growing infrastructure reflected this the city had many schools civic buildings churches and
tons of businesses appearing all around its school programs were renowned
for their skill-based subjects like carpentry and sew-in but gary's main draw had always been its
ever-present job opportunities there was always work that needed doing in gary indiana so much so
that a resident could move into town and secure work within two days which is entirely unheard
of in today's america the steel mill remained its greatest employer as much of its economy
depended on the steel industry for prosperity as the united states was still the global leader in
steel production exporting over 40 percent of the world's steel after the end of world war
ii the mill showed no signs of stopping after all indiana and illinois steel mills accounted for 20
of the u.s total steel production so as long as america's steel industry was secure
they were secure now it's around this time that the city's unresolved problems returned to haunt
it its segregation issue had only worsened as time went by and by 1950 it was one of america's
most divided cities which was especially alarming considering that it was in the north this state of
affairs could not continue as the ever-increasing amount of strikes and protests made these social
issues glaringly apparent to everyone he don't know what the basic problems of a working man
is he's out of touch he's out of sight what's more these social issues were just the tip of
an iceberg for gary's growing problems well by the 1970s it had 32 000 steel workers and 175 415
residents even gaining the title the city of the century that last declaration became quite ironic
when america's steel industry collapsed but how was gary undone when just in 1969 america's steel
production hit its all-time high at a staggering 141 million 262 000 tons produced now it's quite
tricky to pin down exactly why america's steel industry fell apart it's not likely due to one
issue alone as that's rarely the case with life more likely it was several more minor issues that
just snowballed into negative momentum that could not be stopped among these issues was undeniably
growing competition most steel production came primarily from europe which had suffered nearly
apocalyptic destruction during world war ii so afterwards the leading powers and steel production
were the united states and the soviet union and these two economic powers had separate spheres
with very little intermingling but as time went on and the nations heavily damaged in world war ii
started getting back on their feet america's steel industry was no longer uncontested now that new
steel mills were operating across the world one of america's greatest advantages became a crippling
weakness and that was just the problem these new steel mills were new america's steel mills were
no longer cutting edge they were using open hearth mills when the rest of the world had upgraded to
basic oxygen furnaces and continuous casting steel executives across the nation opted to stick
with their outdated methods not adopting any new models until the 1960s and even then only in small
quantities not to mention a common problem in american economics reared its ugly head here too
the riches reaped from these mills were not used to invest in productivity and innovation instead
they went towards various other ventures that caught the fancy of the companies so
as a result the industry stagnated and one of the last developments in american steel was the
electric arc mini mill that just recycled scrap rather than extract from mined iron ore so in
order to reinvent itself the steel industry issued massive layoffs and trained completely new workers
by the time big steel companies realized their mistakes only us steel remained on august the 29th
1958 michael jackson was born in gary indiana and it's interesting to consider that by the 1970s
when this singer rose to extreme fame gary indiana was starting its descent into a hellish landscape
gary started to feel the decline in 1971 with layoffs of tens of thousands of factory workers
come 1972 those people had all left for greener pastures leaving gary a barren wasteland the
layoffs kept coming hastening along gary's decline at the end of the 1980s northern indiana was
responsible for about a quarter of all the u.s steel production which while impressive at one
point now paints a much more grim picture this was the final vestige of america's steel and it showed
from 1970 to 2005 gary's steel workers had dropped from 32 000 to 7 000. in turn the population had
fallen from 175 415 000 to less than 100 000 as the jobs and people drained the businesses
closed the crime rates spiked and what was once known as america's magical city had gained a very
different title the murder capital of america today an estimated 20 of gary's buildings sit
entirely abandoned and over a third of the city's buildings even the occupied ones have some degree
of rot within them chief among these abandoned structures is the city's methodist church once
a grand limestone house of the lord has now been reduced to a dilapidated wreck coated in graffiti
and plagued by weeds many urban explorers believe that the church's new name might reflect the town
as a whole as god's forsaken house and sadly the gary works is still issuing layoffs to the few
workers who remain meaning that the 36 of gary's 75 000 person population lives in poverty and that
number is expected to rise and with so many people fleeing others have argued that what was once
called america's murder capital is simply going to run out of people to kill some believe that the
town can recover and a city recovering from death is not impossible revitalization efforts have had
varying degrees of success including a baseball stadium and arrangements for new development
some of the town's interesting urban ruins have led preservationists to give tours highlighting
its early 20th century architecture as a source of pride and well a comeback is not impossible
it will certainly be a struggle there are several cities across america with stories eerily similar
to that of gary's the destruction of industry is never pretty for the fall of industry is
often the fall of populous and towns founded on industry must fight to restore themselves
or be swept away into the dark gary indiana is a prime example of this american cities might
not have that shiny reputation that they once did but they could the nation can revitalize
itself and it's only a question of will which i suppose leaves me with a question for americans to
answer in the comments section what do you prefer swinging wrecking balls at monuments or laying
down bricks and if you've seen my series tales of urban decay i guess you know where i stand
so hit that subscribe button for more click the join button to become a historic preservationist
producer and remember to tune in every thursday and saturday this is ryan socash signing off