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Show Sunday, September By PATRICK CHRISTIAN Herald Staff Writer Geneva Steel's roots extend deep into Utah's past in the early fledgling iron industries which followed discovery of iron and coal in Southern Utah by an 1850 expedition led by Mormon pioneer Parley P. 1 1 1 ft Pratt. A historical portrait of the development of the Beehive State's basic metals industries an inseparable part of the pioneer background and lore of Utah. The United States Steel Co. (USX Corp. ) publication, "Growth of the Iron and Steel Industry in Utah," states that after the first discoveries by Pratt's expedition, about 118 men with some of their families left Provo under the leadership of George A. Smith. They left on a journey to establish what they hoped would be an industrial center at a place they called Coal Creek. Today the area is known as Cedar I 13. 1987, - THE HERALD, Provo, Utah ' Page5A ' City. They built a crude blast furnace and in 1852 produced the first pig iron made west of the Missouri River. Horseshoeing nails were made from this first pig iron. According to the USS publication, the Deseret Iron Co. purchased the small blast furnace and enlarged it, but for many reasons including the bad timing of an Indian uprising and floods, it was not a financial success and the operation failed. In 1854 a new attempt was launched to restart the iron industry, but it didn't fare much better. According to Garth Mangum, a profesor of Managment and Economics at the University of Utah, "Utah's early settlers strugled from 1852 to produce iron at a cost below that involved in importation from the east." He says they wern't successfull because of primitive technology and primitive conditions. The steel industry near Cedar City was restarted and continued production for 15 years, producing pig iron for stove grates, iron pots, frying pans, flat irons and buckets. It failed in 1883. A story in the Utah Industrialist of June 15, 1887 spoke of "a tract of land of about 340 acres containing inexhaustible quantities of iron ore," in the east hills of the Tintic 'Mining District owned by Provoan A. A. Noon. The book, The History of Provo states that it was Noon who first thought of building furnaces and establishing iron mills in Utah County. He was the prime mover in organizing the Utah Valley Iron Mining and Manufacturing Company. From 1886 to 1887 he lectured and published I articles lobbying on the advantages of establishing iron industries and soliciting support for his company, but the money needed didn't materialize. Industrialist L.F. Rains came to Utah about 1910 ; to study its coal and iron resources and the economic opportunities of these natural resources, according to the "History of Provo." Production needs of World War I led to the organization of the Utah Iron and Steel Company which was incorporated as the Utah Steel Corp., - '. Istates the "History of Provo." A plant was located at Midvale and had a single dpen hearth furnace with a daily capacity of 150 Itons. A second furnace was later added. e ninriiwiTniinmriiiiwiiin-- Ironton Plant was built in the 1920s m.i iiinuriira a niim f mm ittiWl rM(-ijriif- The close of World War I brought financial ruin to the enterprise. An unsuccessful attempt to salvage the project was made in 1923 by reorganizing the corporation as the Western Steel Company and the effort was abandoned in 1926. L. F. Rains had apparently liked the resources he found in 1910. ; - The "History of Provo" says "He took his ideas to California, realizing that the East would probably not be friendly to his project, and knowing that the Pacific Coast States were rich enough to finance Western enterprises. "He received definite encouragement from California financiers and the result was the incorporating under the laws of New Jersey of the Columbia Steel Corporation with a capitalization of million." The history says the corporation was a merger formed in 1922 where Columbia Steel Company of California with plants at Pittsburg and the Los Angeles areas of California, and Portland, Ore. were tied up with iron ore properties in Utah and the properties of the Utah Coal and Coke Company. L. F. Rains became one of 'the vice presidents of Columbia. Columbia constructed a battery of coke ovens and blast furnace at Ironton between Provo and a n Springville in an area that became known as Ironton. The first pig iron there was produced April 30, 1924, and a pioneer bell cast at Cedar City in 1855 announced the official dedication of this plant July 7, 45-to- 1924. "The time will come when the large iron and steel plants on the coast states will be erected on the mmmmmmammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmHmmmmmmm . vy vV. shores of Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake," said Thomas E. McKay, a representative of the governor at the dedication. Pig iron from Ironton was mostly used at Columbia's steel plants at Pittsburg and Torrance, Calif, in producing steel. In 1930 Columbia was sold to the United States Steel Corp. With Ironton, came a continuous history of steelmaking in Utah that continues with Geneva Steel recently purchased by Utah Manufacturing and Technologies of Utah Inc. from the USX Corp. (formerly U.S. Steel). According to Mangum, Ironton "highlighted Utah's advantage in raw material supplies, it also demonstrated what is still the key limitation on the lack of an adequate Utah's steel industry Mangum said that local steel users including Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Co. which was established nearby in 1926, were too few to offer the market scale big enough for a plant which produced 600 tons of metallurgical ;coke and 550 tons of pig iron per day. The largest development of the iron and steel industry in Utah resulted from U.S. involvement in World War II when in 1941 and 1942 the federal government decided to build the Geneva facility as a precaution against the possible closing of the Panama Canal by enemy attacks which would affect steel supplies to Pacific Coast shipbuilders. At the request of the U.S. Government, United States Steel Corp. designed the new steel plant for the government. It was built for the government by USS's Columbia Steel Co. without charge or fee. The new mill known first as the Geneva Plant was named for a little summer resort on the shore of Utah Lake. Most of the skilled workers came from Columbia and other USS subsidiaires, but the majority of the working force was recruited from among Utahns. The first pig iron was smelted in January of 1944 followed by the first open hearth steel a month later. ' f 1 With the surrender of Japan Aug. 14, 1945 wartime shipbuilding contracts were cancelled and the Geneva Plant slowed to an idled shutdown iw ,i L- iAi,.B.w:Ji' x f.'.Wml.HI.I,j(l.,H r ovens can still be seen near Cedar City. ; IHUIK.yttM'.. M t l..l ff ?. i.fr.WIH,,.WUW'-m8W'gM''- , ffT''-it- , ,J yV' ? - X t-t- e v USS-owne- re-sta- rt iii -- . condition. The government put the steelmill up for sale and USS bid was accepted May 23, 1946 and steps were d steelmill. the new begun to Geneva devleoped into the largest tax contributor in Utah county with the exception of public utilities of Utah Power & Light Co. and Mountain Bell. This year USX planned said it would permanently close Geneva and it was sold to the Utah firm. (in iiih.i .i iiimi ..mi linn imm n "jukui ii J"wif.l..M: mi ' ' im imii in I .w ... iiji .4 " A i, "fi . - 4 . J' w - Sua- - A. 2 V ' vZKi-r-- y l Jj ! - v joj y l VV "ilii Yean J A' n 'ZziW I r 7 if f 1922. ilfrtiMiili between Provo and Springville in the area that has become known as Ironton Hill. This photo was taken in market." -- -- $20 I yl.v-fe-f- nii itfaniimiilffMiimriWffliniWTTi ,iiMrrrcmwTirrnnifmr r were removed when the land was given to BYU. later, Ironton Steel Plant looked like thli before It closed. The structure The remains of an iron furnace used by pioneers near Cedar City. it alto located |
