Now abandoned for about a decade, this steel mill has weathered abandonment fairly well, though days of manufacturing at this site surely are at an end.. A going concern on 150 acres in the early 20th century, this local specialty-steel firm merged before World War II with another company that complemented, not replicated, the production of this plant. Thus the two firms joined as one could take over a larger share of the steel market. Wartime demand for aircrafts and weaponry boosted the steel industry, but by the 1970s, steel makers were crippled by a variety of factors. This firm managed to stay in business through diversification and selling off certain divisions and was also aided by voluntary restraints on cheap imports. 

    It was recently disclosed that this site, among many steel mills, participated in wartime atomic energy work related to the processing, production, or handling of materials for atomic weapons. Also interestingly, some of the firm's steel went into rare stainless steel automobiles and architectural details on major skyscrapers. By the 1980s however, the steel went into more pedestrian products including skis, home cookware, shaving razors and computer disks. But it still turned  a profit in every quarter when competitors were heading towards extinction. Although major improvements to the site kept the company profitable in these turbulent years, the firm was repeatedly sold to a number of parent companies including foreign owners, the last of whom finally declared bankruptcy in the late 1990s.

    These photos represent only a partial investigation of the property, but are probably representative of the condition of the buildings that I did not examine. The large sheds are devoid of industrial devices - generators and other oversize items were obviously hacked apart and taken out through huge holes gutted out of exterior walls. Perhaps the furnaces have been scrapped as well. There are obvious signs that the place is well known as a local hang-out, but those who have come here have largely left undisturbed the blueprints, employee records, trade journals, parts catalogs, and other miscellanies scattered about several company offices. In the employee locker room, tousled jeans still sit on the backs of chairs while boots, t-shirts, sweaters and other personal effects lay scattered about the floor or still hang in the lockers. The janitors mop and bucket guard the bathroom door. And a light-blue hippie van is permanently parked inside one of the mill buildings, with its door frame bent in somehow.

More Abandoned Steel Mill photos:
Interior Photos - Page 2