Vineyard, UT; US Steel Geneva Works

(Satellite)

Craig Loal Whetten

John Heitzman posted
My very first steel mill I worked in. US Steel Geneva works. Vineyard , Utah. Nothing left of the place now. Since I moved back out west. I sure would like to find some people who worked there. I was there from 1996-2000.
[Some comments indicated they had 3 blast furnaces, 2 QBop furnaces, ladles and a cupola. They produced plate and pipe.]

James Belmont Flickr

United States Steel Geneva Works

This aerial view of United States Steel's Geneva Works was taken from a small aircraft with a stunt pilot (!!!) on June 22, 1979. The integrated mill was located in Vineyard, Utah, and was built during World War II to enhance national steel output. It operated from December 1944 to November 2001 and was served the the Denver & Rio Grande Western, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, and Utah Railway Company.

 

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad posted
One of Utah County's biggest employers, United States Steel's Geneva Works, appears to be working at capacity as Rio Grande's Provo Switcher departs the mill with 60 cars for Provo Yard. Included in today's train are cradle cars and gondolas of coil steel, gondolas of plate steel, coal empties, dolomite empties, and a few mill gondolas trailed by an Aspen Gold painted caboose. The mill shut down (in cold idle status) in 1986, reactivated by new owners in 1987. It would operate as a profitable venture until the expense of manufacturing steel vs. cheaper imports shut it down for good in 2001. Nothing remains of Geneva Steel today. Note the impact the mill had on overall air quality with the open hearth belching out steam and particulates amid Geneva's infamous 'brown cloud' that hovered above the valley floor throughout the year.
James Belmont photo and comment
Warren Domenick: Still a faint aroma as you drive by.

1969 Pelican Point and Orem Quadrangles at 1:24,000

The Department of Defense caused this plant to be built for WWII with the plan "to supply 700,000 tons of plate and 200,000 tons of structural steel shapes per year for the rapidly increasing shipbuilding program on the west coast." As of its completion in 1944, it was said to be the largest steel plant ever built as one integrated unit. The ore, coal and limestone came from Utah. "The plant includes as major units, 252 by-prouduct coke ovens in four batteries, three 1100-ton blast furnaces, nine 225-ton open hearth furnaces, plate and structural rolling mills, power plant, a byproducts plant." [UtahRails]

Aubrey Glazier, Brigham Young University, “United States Geneva Works,” Intermountain Histories, accessed September 2, 2021, https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/82

Haven Ruiz posted eight photos and a video with the comment:

Greetings! I’m fairly new to this group. I just wanted to share some photos of Geneva Steel, in Vineyard Utah. Built during WWII, it was the largest fully integrated steel mill in America west of the Mississippi River. Their main product during the war was steel plating for Liberty-class ships. Later they were a major producer of steel used for Campbell’s soup cans. They filed for bankruptcy twice, and the second time was when they closed down for good in 2002.

Today, nothing remains of the mill except the contaminated soil, and concrete foundations and basements of the buildings that have been demolished. 

Several pieces of its rolling mill components were purchased and shipped to a steel mill in China. Real estate developers have been rapidly building high density housing on the southern end of the mill site.

Bill McGah: Where did you get the information about the Campbell soup cans? Can stock is awfully thin material, and like you said Geneva was primarily a heavier thickness plate mill.

Haven Ruiz: Bill McGah my grandpa informed me. He grew up in the area when Geneva was still active, and had family who worked there. They made plate, as well as coil steel and structural beams. They sent the coils to Campbell’s.

Bill McGah: Haven Ruiz If they supplied coils the coils would have had to go somewhere first before going to a can manufacturer to be cold reduced down to a very thin gauge (probably at USS Posco in Pittsburgh, CA as I believe they used to produce tin plate). Coils from Geneva would not have gone directly to a food can manufacturer.

Chuck Jahn: CF&I was the largest integrated steel mill west of the Mississippi! And still in business as Evraz

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"The decision to build the plant at this location was based on several factors. The necessary raw materials were all within a reasonable distance--coal deposits in Carbon County, iron ore from Iron County, limestone and dolomite near Payson, and water from Deer Creek Reservoir and on-site artesian wells. Other advantages were the proximity of the site to major railroad lines and the availability of an educated and stable local work force. The plant's inland location, though far from major markets, was selected as a precaution against steel shortages in the West in case of a Pacific coast invasion or closure of the Panama Canal. This became an issue of increasing concern after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941." [UtahHistoryEncyclopedia]

Raymond Boothe posted
USS Geneva Works (later Geneva Steel): View of blast furnace No. 3 (Dr. Raymond Boothe photograph).
Richard Allison: Those were great running furnaces....

I assume there was just one Geneva with blast furnaces in the USA.

Pete Maxfield posted
A sad day in 2005 when the furnaces at Geneva Steel came down. I worked the Pipemill where we made high schedule pipe for gas pipelines.

The steel mill is in the background of this photo.