It opened in 1942 to supply steel for the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond during WWII. It closed in 1983, but the facilities are now used by California Steel Industries. [chapman] 1942 is when ground was broken. By 1943 a blast furnace, open hearth furnace and a 148" plate mill were operational. This helped Kaiser Shipyard produce 700 "Liberty Ships" during WWII. [steel-photo]
I wonder where this plant got its iron ore and coal. Actually, even limestone may be rare in the west. The Midwest has lots of limestone because much of it used to be under a ocean that was in the middle of the country.
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| Fontana Proud posted and FontanaChamber Jim Clark: Good old #1 blast furnace "Bess". I often worked at #1 cooling tower that kept her cool. |
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| forbes, Kaiser Archives [The current speedway is where the blast furnaces used to be. The row of smokestacks on the right is the signature of open hearth buildings.] |
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| Kaiser Steel Fontana Tractor Gibson posted |
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| steel-photo Big Bess had a capacity of 1200 tons/day. Within 10 years of building open hearth furnaces, they installed a Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF), the second one in the US. The Army forced the plant to be built 50 miles away from the coast, and this did impact the economics of delivering raw materials. After Kaiser Steel went bankrupt in 1983, California Steel Industries bought the 1943 148" plate mill and the 1950 86" hot strip mill. The mills were supplied with slabs from overseas. The plate mill was sold but the hot-strip mill is still operational. |
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| USC, this collection has 19 other photos |
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| Hans Herres posted Kevin Nelson: Hans Herres Here is the link to the page I found with this photo. There are some other great photos too. https://www.gettyimages.ae/photos/kaiser-steel-plant?assettype=image&phrase=kaiser%20steel%20plant&sort=mostpopular&license=rf%2Crm Joe Barron: One way to get an appropriate date is to observe the safety (or lack of) safety equipment they are wearing. Notice no hard hats but those on the "teaming" isle seem to be wearing flame proof long coats and I would guess safety glasses. I'm going to guess this is in the 40's. And yes this looks like a brand new facility and possibly first pour. Never saw a hot metal ladle this clean on the outside |
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| ClimatesOfInequality 1: Will Connell, Kaiser Steel Furnace, c. 1958. Courtesy Will Connell Collection, California Museum of Photography, University of California, Riverside. |
The bottle car is pouring the iron into a ladle with a big pouring spout. I presume that an overhead crane will then lift the ladle and pour the iron into an open hearth furnace given the 1958 date.
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| ClimatesOfInequality 4: Courtesy Will Connell Collection, California Museum of Photography, University of California, Riverside. |
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| Jon Wolfe posted Kaiser Steel Daniel Neil Meyers: Continuous butt weld pipe mill? Looks like the same mill we had at WPSC until it closed in 1984 Blaine Chapman: Daniel Neil Meyers You’re exactly right Dan. There is one in Wheatland Pa. still in operation. 1/2” - 4” pipe. The torch is your biggest friend. Tom White: CBWP 10 Stand Just Like Laclede Steel Plant In Alton IL |
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| Lawrence Howard posted Found this pic they seem to be assembling the bop at the time, Richard Conti: That’s Kaiser’s main road (Gene Avenue) just north of the Galv Mill looking Northwest over Forge and Weld and The Main Machine Shop. Brian Olson: Got to wonder if an EAF shop would of made more sense. You could get as much as 1.5 million tons from a new EAF shop in the late 1970s. James Torgeson shared Todd Branch: Nice BOF Vessel Trunnion Ring James Torgeson: Ralph Cappella And Kaiser was one of the early adopters of BOF steelmaking, much like McLouth! The big guys were "content" with open hearths... |
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| safe_image for Work hard, play hard was attitude at Kaiser Steel in Fontana James Torgeson shared |
John Travers posted three photos with the comment: "Here are some more views of the "Bess"; Kaiser Steel's blast furnace no.1 in early February 1943. These photos are from a certain Alexia King, who may have been an early Kaiser Steel employee. If you look closely you can notice that a lot of stray trees and shrubs were still uncleared within the confines of the plant as the "Bess" and nearby coke plant were starting operations."
James Torgeson shared
Richard Allison: The last time I visited the blast furnaces at Kaiser, there were 4 furnaces running in 1981. I entered the plant from Cherry St. For over a year, I would be sent there, especially on No.4 to help on cutting costs in the casthouse with refractories on troughs, runners and taphole. I did a little work at the coke plant too. I visited most plants east of the Mississippi but Kaiser was one of my favorites to service and visit.
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| Mara Cedré posted Hi all, I’m trying to find this press image (the original) or a high res scan. I’d love any leads. 🙏🏽❤️ James Torgeson shared Wartime expansion of the Kaiser Steel open hearth. |
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| Tod Branch commented on James' share A few photo's of Kaiser taken from one of their General Catalogs, date unknown. |
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| Tod Branch commented on James' share Another |
Kaiser Steel famously had its own iron ore mine at Eagle Mountain, in Riverside County. They had their own railroad to haul the processed ore to the SP, which took it to Fontana. I'm not sure how much of the iron ore supply for Fontana that they were able to source from Eagle Mountain.
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