Dixon, IL: 1914 St. Marys Cement Plant

Plant: (Satellite)

Limestone Quarry: (Satellite, note there is a conveyor belt that goes alongside the road to the cement plant.)

Street View, Sep 2022

Street View, Aug 2023

It looks like they have one long kiln and three short kilns.

Satellite

It is good to know of a secondary market for blast furnace slag.

StMaryCement

May 12, 2025:

Ed Pilar posted two photos with the comment: "May 12 2025 Dixon, IL On the Rock River at the Cement plant."

1
[It looks like they are removing the kilns. Just the end of one of the short kilns is visible. The most recent Google Earth image is May 2023, and it still has the kilns.
The St Marys website still lists Dixon as a location.]

2

I looked for rail service on a satellite map and could not find any. Now I'm surprised that the plant lasted until the 2020s. Buzzi Unicem was closed by 2013, and it did have rail service. A topo map shows that the plant used to have an industrial spur that connected with both railroads in town, but the spur did street running through Dixon on River Street. I'll bet the town was glad to see that spur disappear.

1950/64 Dixon Quad @ 62,500

The plant stopped production in 2018 because "the plant’s location was poor compared to other sites." [GlobalCement]

"The decision arrived after the plant was noted to be at a transportation disadvantage. The company’s five other cement plants are ideally located to take advantage of its customer base in the Great Lakes region." [cemnet]

St Mary's has plants on the Great Lakes and ships cement in freighters.