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Show Iron-maki- ng Special to The Daily Herald Geneva Steel traces its roots back to the early Utah pioneers who found the essential mineral deposits in large enough quantities to begin the manufacturing of iron. Early g efforts by these pioneers proved successful in the short-terbut not economically iable in the long-ruTime and time again attempts were made to produce a iron in Utah, but high hopes and good intentions could not compete with the expanding railroads which brought much cheaper and better quality iron into the area. The need for steel during World War 1 prompted another substantial effort to manufacture iron and steel from Utah's vast mineral resources, but the end of the war prompted the pioneers were forerunners to Geneva V v. ' iron-makin- n. cost-effecti- termination of contracts I 14 and doomed the enterprise. Utah's efforts to produce iron and steel, however, did not go unnoticed. Interested parties both in and outside of the state looked to Utah's coal and iron acquire deposits and invest in another attempt to manufacture iron. By 1923, ground was broken for an iron works at Ironton. between Springville and Provo, by the Columbia Steel Corp. The Ironton sucplant was the first large-scal- e cessful venture in iron making in the Beehive State, and it became the progenitor of Geneva Steel. The decade of the 1940s opened with the hostility in Europe threatening to escalate, into another world war. Consequently, the demand for steel accelerated and it appeared to some that America's ability to produce steel might possibly exceed the production of all existing facilities. In November the 1941, Reconstruction Finance Corp. announced that a completely integrated steel mill would be built in Utah by the Columbia Steel Co. as agent for the Defense Plant Corp. One reason to build the steel production facilities in the West was ,i precaution against possible closing of the Panama Canal by enemy attacks, which would have severely affected the steel supplies of Pacific Coast shipbuilders. The site in Utah County was chosen because it possessed adequate transportation facilities, was a minimum distance from sources of iron ore. coal, limestone and dolomite, and because of the accessibility of a sufficient fresh water supply. The new mill, known first as the Geneva Plant, was named after the Geneva Bathing Resort which had closed down its operation on the shore of Utah Lake a few years earlier. Engineering and planning was rapid iy proceeding on the steel plant site when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Not wanting to be uprooted. -- ran B- F'vi;f. L IIIIII I I .1 -- . 1 ija-- - -a- tt-" JO II c - - TIvssssssbss- Photo courtesy of Geneva Steel November 1941, the Reconstruction Finance Corp. announced that a completely integrated steel mill would be built in Utah by the Columbia Steel Co. as In agent for the Defense Plant Corp. The result is Geneva Steel, shown here before much of Orem's growth took place. but realizing the greater good that the steel mill would bring to the country and to the local economy, the families whose homes and farms occupied the site of the future steel mill sold their lands at or below cost to the U.S. Government and quickly relocated. Columbia Steel Co., the principal contractor, hired more than 00 subcontractors and II. 000 people for all phases of the construction at the cost of approximately S2I0 million. On Dec. 7, 943, two years following America's entry into the war. the coke plant was completed and Geneva's first steel was produced Feb. 3, 944. Upon its completion, the plant was operated for the government by the Geneva Steel Co. Most of the from skilled came personnel Columbia and other U.S. Steel subsidiaries, however, the majority of the working force were Utahns, many of whom had probably never seen a steel mill before Geneva. With the end of the war, cancellation of wartime contracts brought production at Geneva to a hall. The plant's future was questionable as postwar negotiations debated the status of the mili. Great anxiety w as felt by thousands of Utahns who had become accustomed and dependant to the level of prosperity that this industry brought to the state and community. On May 23.' 946. worries of the CUTURV COftMCR Thi icadtng Ertfa In ftnlvit The Original Leatherman Tool An American Classic! LEATHERMAN' $39. 98 Sale Price University Mall Orem 225-947- 1 H HJ) with Free Sheath! P South Towne Center 4 Sandy 576-163- (See GENEVA. Page 93) 91 |