Uniontown, PA: 1887-1895 Columbia Rolling [Steel] Mill and B&O Depot

Mill: (Satellite)

B&O Depot: (Satellite)

I've read about quite a few steel mills that disappeared in the 1980s. But I think this is the first one I've seen that disappeared in the 19th Century.

Rj Mowery posted two photos with the comment:

This is the Columbia Rolling (steel) Mill on the east side of N. Beeson Ave uniontown pa. This picture is from the collection of the late Jack Gates II, local historian, author, and photographer. The mill opened in September 1887. J.V. Thompson was responsible for getting them to open in Uniontown. Bell Telephone opened an office in town in January 1889 because of this mill's need for phone service. For a while, they were the only subscriber. By January 8, Columbia Iron and Steel had received orders for 600 tons of 12-inch steel beams to be completed by February 1. Seventy-five cars of the best Bessemer steel arrived the two days preceding. Each car contained about 22 tons. That was the most iron received there during a two-day period. Two converters were working at full capacity turning 110 to 115 tons of iron into steel every day. The beams were being shipped to many principal cities around the country. Robert Hogsett was elected president in 1893. In 1899, the mill was dismantled and was leaving town piece by piece. It was completely gone by 1901. P.J. and John Reagan and Thomas J. Lynch, of Reagan, Lynch, and Co. purchased 11 acres of ground at the old Columbia Rolling Mill across the B.&O. tracks from the McCrum-Howell Radiator Plant on June 9. Engineers began laying out the plot in residential lots. The land had been given by the residents of Uniontown to the Columbia Iron and Steel Co. It was later sold at sheriff’s sale for $60,000 to the Safe Deposit and Trust Co. of Pittsburgh. Later, J.W. Wicks of Chicago bought the land and then sold it to the National Steel Co. who in turn sold it to Reagan and Lynch. The Columbia Iron and Steel Addition  was added in 1913  between the Baltimore and Ohio railroad right of way and N. Gallatin Avenue. It had 118 lots and included Florence and Columbia avenues and Magnolia and Kerr streets. This lot would become the Reagan-Lynch lot where many circuses, carnivals, and fireworks displays were held. You can see the lot behind Gallatin School in the aerial photo. Dr. Jack Gates III shared the first picture from his dad's collection. The information here comes from James Hadden's "History of Uniontown" and many old newspapers.

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Of the avenues and streets listed, Kerr Street is the only one I could find today.

1900 Uniontown Quad @ 1:62,500

UniontownCity and Youghiogheny River Valley History have the same text. They both seem to have copied from Wikipedia-uniontown without acknowledgement. From that text we learn: "The Columbia Rolling Mill, an iron and steel works, was located in Uniontown from 1887 to 1895. The mill was the town's top industry at that time. During the Coal Boom of the early part of the 20th century, Uniontown was home to at least 13 millionaires, the most (per capita) of any city in the United States." That would explain the coke ovens I found on this map while I was looking for labels of the two railroads on the south side of town. (They were labeled north of town and the eastern one was B&O and the western one that ran through town was the Pennsy.)

But I have to use wikipedia-columbia to learn why the largest employer in town closed in 1995. Andrew Carnegie bought it to get rid of the competition and to move the equipment to his Homestead Works!

Chris Valentovich posted
B&O Railroad Station, Uniontown, PA between North Beeson Avenue and Gallatin Avenue. This was located on the B&O line from Connellsville, PA to Fairmont, WV. Date uncertain.

The depot is the building along the curve of the track in the lower-right corner. The steel mill is the vacant land in the top half between the Pennsy on the left and the B&O tracks on the right.

EarthExplorer: May 5, 1962 @ 28,000; AR1VAIW00010079

DavidRumsey

Madison, IN: 1955-2022 1.3gw Clifty Creek Generating Plant and PRB Coal

(Satellite)

PRB = Power River Basin

This power plant is owned by Indiana-Kentucky Electric, a subsidiary of Ohio Valley Electric Corp (OVEC). American Electric Power is the primary parent company of OVEC at 43.47%. [gem, cleveland] It consists of six GE units, each of which is 217.3mw. [power] The two old smokestacks are 983' and the new dual-flue stack, which was built in 2008, is 982'. The coal storage yard can hold over 1 million tons, which is enough for about 83 days. The plant was designed to burn coal from the Illinois Coal Basin. The average daily use is 12,000 tons and that generates steam at 2000 psi and 1050-degrees F. Electricity is generated at 15.5kv and then stepped up to 345kv. [nrc] I've learned from other plants that the newer dual-flue smokestack indicates that the plant installed sulfur scrubbers. The stack was built in 2008, but the Jet Bubbling Reactor to reduce SO2 emissions did not go online until 2013. $80m was spent in the mid 1990's "to modify the coal yard and each of its six boilers to burn low-sulfur Western coal." [ovec-emissions] So they probably switched from Illinois Basin coal to PBR in the mid 1990s and then switched back to Illinois Basin coal in 2013. Now they are switching back to PBR because of increased natural gas prices and the closure of coal mines in the Illinois Basin. [Facebook post below]

Wolverine

 

Christian Anderson posted
Madison indiana's giants 989ft [301m] of power

Jeff Middleton: Work summer labor there while going to college 76-78. They poured the second set of stacks and demoed the original 3 stacks during my time there. My Dad, Bob Middleton, retired after 38 years there. I ended up at Gibson Station for Public Service Indiana/Cinergy/Duke. Retired after 42 1/2 years there.

Christian Anderson: Jeff Middleton I wish I could have seen the two tall stacks plus the 3 old ones.

Paul Davis: Been there many times . Was there on the scr project and maintenance outages .

Dennis Fedock: Paul Davis My Construction Technology Group in Barberton engineered and designed the "Lilly Pad" that supported the Demag CC2800 crawler for off-loading barges, when BWCC did the SCR retrofit project. The good ol days, ... seems like only yesterday!!

William Ross Efird posted
Unit 1 Clifty Creek
Shane Hollanbaugh: Just like unit 1 at Kyger Creek
Larry Taylor: The story of the plant is on utube it is called twins on the ohio.
James Griffith: FPL PPE 1,2,3,4 MegaHaul [I wish I knew what that meant.]
Andy Siekman: Always heard these units were the same series as Tanners Creek Unit 3.
Bob Miller: Can't believe their getting overhauled. Harbor Energy turning off the Sammis plant in may . 40 + years rebuilding those units

Jim Maratik commented on William's post
Pixs of Edgewater units 1 to 4… Sheb. Wi.
[Are these units of the same design as those in Clifty Creek?]

This Facebook post is of note because it taught me that PRB coal doesn't burn well when it should and does burn when it shouldn't. Also, it has less BTU content.

Andrew Shafer posted
Does anyone hear know about Ohio Valley Electric burning PRB at Clifty Creek or Kyger Creek again? They just started receiving shipments of it for the first time since 2012 or 2013 when wet scrubbers were finished at these sites. Not very often you see a swing in who is using what coal nowadays.
Steve Buck: PRB doesn't burn till it gets to a fly ash hopper!
Brandyn Lee Hamrick: Struggling to get good coal.
Heard nightmares of it. Catches fire all the time but doesn’t burn good and clogs everything else up.
Carlton Crasher: Coal mines around us in southern Indiana have told me they can’t hire enough people to meet demand since coal is in demand atm with higher natural gas prices. They even fired up and did some temporary fixing to a drag line around me that sat for two years. If coal is still in high demand it’s supposed to also get a 5 million dollar retrofit.
Brian Carroll: PRB is a ticking bomb… most eastern plants aren’t well equipped to burn it. Certainly can’t let the dust build up like we did with western PA coal.
Wendel Taggart: Brian Carroll Very explosive!!
Paul Yankulic: Brian Carroll eastern plants are designed to burn bituminous coal...mills are not big enough to handle much PRB...we burned it for better than 5 years.
Brian Carroll: Paul Yankulic what plant and what percentage.
Paul Yankulic: Brian Carroll Fort Martin...best we could do was 30-35% without catching mills and reject chambers on fire. Had to lower mill temps to 135 as well.
Joe Finamore: We burnt it at Albright Station in a mix, it was hard to keep a fire with it!

"When they began operation, the Clifty Creek Station, along with its twin, the Kyger Creek Station, were the largest power plants ever built by private industry. The Clifty Creek Station was built to provide power to the Atomic Energy Commission’s gaseous diffusion plant sited at Piketon, Ohio.  The plant’s electricity output helped power that facility until the supply agreement ended in 2003." [ovec]

Once again, I'm saving a satellite image of a power plant because it is going to be disappearing. This satellite image also documents that it receives coal by barge. I included Big Clifty Creek since that is the namesake for the plant.

Satellite

Judging by the Google search results, the reason the plant is being closed is not because of carbon emissions, it is because the EPA has decided to enforce its rules concerning groundwater contamination. Specifically, power plants are no longer allowed to dump their waste into unlined ash ponds. A lining is needed to keep toxins such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic out of the ground water. OVEC claims that being forced to close the plant "might 'negatively impact' the stability of the regional electric grid and power markets." [cleveland] But the plant is an antique and John Blair, executive directory of Valley Watch, "has said the entire plant should be retired since it does not serve as baseload power by any of its owners. Plant owners say the closure will not have an impact on electricity availability for any of the companies that own the plant or their customers." [gem] In OVEC's claim, that little word "might" turns a false statement into a technically correct statement. But the statement is still very misleading.

Also, Illinois does not have a monopoly on a power company bribing some state legislatures for a subsidy bill. [cleveland]

Bureau C: Spring Valley, IL: Spring Valley Illinois Coal Co. Mines

Mine #1: (Satellite)

Mine #3: (Satellite, the land with no trees was the base of the tailings pile)

Mine #1

This mine was active between 1884-1925.

Roger Kujawa posted
Spring Valley, Illinois Coal Company Mine 1.
Jeremy Bubb: Serviced by Rock Island?
Harold J. Krewer: The No. 1 and No. 2 mines were in the valley of Spring Creek and served by the C&NW. The No. 3 mine was on the west end of town. The North Western built a long spur through town to serve it and it was also served by the Chicago, Ottawa & Peoria Railway, an electric interurban line that was part of the Illinois Traction (later Illinois Terminal) System.
Roger Kujawa shared
Dennis DeBruler Judging from the "white mountain" in the background of the photo, we are looking north. I have learned that C&NW served three coal mines on the west side of Spring Valley. So I assume this is one of them.

 

Roger Kujawa posted
1914 Spring Valley Illinois postcard, miners, mining, mine,  IL

Andy Zukowski posted three photos with the comment:

Spring Valley Coal Company, Spring Valley No. 1 Mine, Bureau County, Illinois.

The Spring Valley Coal Company owned four mines in Spring Valley. By 1913 there were 2,500 miners working through the Spring Valley Coal Company's four mines. Mine No. 1 closed in 1923 and was dismantled in 1927.

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Roger Kujawa posted
Spring Valley Illinois Coal Co. Mine PC Miners ~1900's Bureau County IL RR cars. Looking South towards the Illinois River. Served by the C&NW.
Roger Kujawa shared
Ken Morrison: so is that the Rock Island trestle over Spring Creek (and the CNW) behind it?
Roger Kujawa: Ken Morrison That would be the interurban. Chicago Ottawa and Peoria. Also at one time the Chicago and Illinois Valley.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Roger's share
It appears the tipple was at the end of Iowa Street.
1913 La Salle Quadrangle @ 1:62,500

Roger Kujawa posted three photos with the comment: "Spring Valley Illinois postcard 1910? Mine #1 Coal Mine And rescue team."

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Roger Kujawa posted
Spring Valley Illinois postcard 1910? Mine #1 Coal Mine

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This looks like a variant of photo #2 above.

Roger Kujawa posted
1908 No. 1 Coal Mines Spring Valley Illinois Ill. Postcard
Gary Gray: Probably using 5 ton skips
That means their max was around 3000 tons per 8 hours.

Andy Zukowski posted
Shaft NO. 1 in Spring Valley, Illinois.

5 newspaper clippings

Mine #3

Andy Zukowski posted
Spring Valley Coal Co. Mine NO.3 Spring Valley, Illinois. 1920’s
Kevan Davis: Is all the wood inbound for cribbing?
Leroy Raney: Kevan Davis propping roof for support.

Roger Kujawa posted
Spring Valley, IL-Illinois, No. 3 Coal Mines c1910, Vintage Postcard

Dennis DeBruler commented on Roger's post
On this topo map, we can clearly see where the tailings pile was south of Northwestern Street and west of Pulaski Street. Looking at a satellite map, it appears that the pile has been removed but that trees can't grow there.
1947 La Salle Quad @ 62,500

Dennis DeBruler commented on Roger's post
This 1941 aerial photo confirms that the topo map is correct: not only have the roads changed, but a cluster of houses was removed.
 https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/bureau/flight9/00rr2b157.jpg

Dennis DeBruler commented on Roger's post
But I noticed that the topo map did not agree with what we see on a satellite image. So I checked out that area as well. The topo map is wrong on that detail.
 https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/webdocs/ilhap/county/data/bureau/flight9/00rr2b157.jpg

General

There were a couple of surprises in the directory. One was that longwall mining was used. I thought that was a recent development. Looking at the key, what is new is that they don't bother to backfill with rock to provide support, they just allow the roof to collapse. The second surprise was the Colchester seam. I'm used to seeing Herrin or Springfield.

Directory

Map

I wondered if the Colchester seam was older or newer than the Herrin and Springfield. The following shows it is older. The Colchester seam is more ubiquitous in the Illinois Basin, but it is not as thick.

ISGS, p11

ISGS, p12

The Spring Valley mines are along the northern border of the Illinois Basin.

ISGS, p13

ISGS, p14

I don't have any overview notes of Illinois coal mining, so I'm going to "park" this here for now.

David Hahn posted
Copied from the “You grew up in LaSalle - Peru” fb group.

Andy Zukowski posted
Miners ready for work in Spring Valley, Illinois. (No Date)

Benton, IL: Hart-Williams Coal Mine and IC Depot

Mine: (Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite)

Roger Kujawa posted
BENTON ILLINOIS 1908 ERA POSTCARD COAL MINE TIPPLE IS IN CONSTRUCTION R.R. CARS
Roger Kujawa shared

Roger Jujawa posted
USA Benton Coal Co. Mine Benton Illinois Vintage RPPC C034

Ken Morrison commented on Roger's share
CW&F #2 was originally Hart-Williams

Dennis DeBruler commented on Roger's share
The C&EI used to have a spur that went to the tipple. A tree line still marks where that spur probably ran east of New Hope Baptist Church.
1909 West Franklin Quadrangle @ 1:62,500

An IC derailment over I-57 shows that coal mining was still done in the area into the 21st Century.

Street View

David Cantrell posted two photos with the comment: "Former Benton Illinois Central depot in Franklin County taken this afternoon. Second  photo from early 1920's."

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Johnstown, PA: TYK/Swank Refractories

(Satellite)

Don Cassata posted
This pix is from 1960 of Swank Refractories. A Johnstown company, much like Mesta, is largely overlooked in steel history. Started in the 1800's, they supplied bricks & refractory products for our industry. If you had a steel mill, you probably had Swank bricks in it. Closed for many years, another victim of the demise of steel. Most Johnstowners don't even know it existed.
Lou Sebastian: Being from Johnstown and working for Vesuvius I am very familiar with Swank. Their biggest claim to fame was bloating clay available only from Clymer Pa. near Johnstown. Prior to bloating bricks in ladle linings, it was very difficult to get a tight seal and prevent burn throughs. Swank sold this clay brick worldwide. Also, a bloating clay nozzle would help maintain a constant flow rate when pouring into the ingot mold. After Swank went out of business, Vesuvius bought the Clymer property and shipped the clay to Germany to make nozzles and then back to USA for sale. Obviously this was not practical and the project was discontinued. Slidegates came on about the same time.
Kevin Regan: Lou Sebastian Hello “Uncle Lou”! How’s retirement treating you? I’m still about 5-6 years away. Your comments are spot on. The technology advancements of “clean steel “ in the 1980’s and 1990’s necessitated the development of more corrosion resistant refractory bricks. So the demise of Swank wasn’t necessarily caused by the demise of antiquated steelmaking practices. Those companies like Vesuvius, HW, Resco, Refratechnik, etc all survived because of their R&D achievements. Just think what the refractory industry will look like in the next 40-50 years!
Ray Schloss: When I worked for the Pittsburg & Shawmut RR in the early 90’s, we had 3 firebrick companies. Continental Clay in Kittanning would truck to our freight house to load, Freeport Brick would load boxcars from their own spur in Reesedale, PA, and I’m forgetting another one.
Richard Allison: My dad was a supervisor for Davis Firebrick and there was an A.P. Green plant near us that made high duty and super duty firebrick. I think Davis had a tunnel kiln but Green had those old beehive ovens that some used natural gas or charcoal/coke. The railroad boxcars used straw for cushioning the brick, especially when the car was humped. I must be getting old.
James Ashcom: Stopper sleeve. First brick next to stopper. I work at this refractory yard 1975 to about 1988. I worked in the machine shop which produced the die work to make the different designs of refractory.
Robert Morris: I thought they were stopper rod sleeves.
Chad Ramsey: David Havener Sr still one of the biggest refractory suppliers.
Dave Kurtz: Looks like stopper rod sleeves.
Lloyd Hanning: Dave Kurtz Yep, exactly right Dave! When we went to slidegates it sure made life a lot easier!
[And there are some comments about bent stopper rods.]

Swank started in the 1850s as a pottery company.  [TheStoneyCreek]

The Wilmore, Pennsylvania Neighborhood post
1977 - Camper trailer embedded in the side of "The Swank Refractories" building on Maple Avenue (Swank Brickyard at the end of Maple Avenue) in the Woodvale area of Johnstown during the Flood of 1977.
Photo courtesy of mars2999 via https://www.flickr.com/photos/13860679@N08/with/7612709164) — with Judy Schafer.

The windows have been filled in, but I think this is the same building.

Street View

Lower Burrell: 1897 Braeburn Allow Steel

(Satellite)

"Founded in 1897, Braeburn Alloy Steel is a specialist in metal conversion. It offers processing capabilities for a wide range of metal alloys, including titanium, refractory metals, high-nickel alloys, and stainless, tool, carbon and alloy steel. The company offers a variety of services, including forging, conversion bar rolling, cold-finish annealing, stress relieving, thermal treatment,..." [BusinessFinder]

John Gentile posted
The roll turner at Braeburn.....still operable...dates back to 1936
Arthur Godfrey: We had one across the river at Allegheny-Ludlum that was 1905 Hyde Park lathe to rough cut rolling mills. Still worked and was used.
Morgan Gilliland: Man .... walking into that place is like a working time capsule.
Allen Pugh shared
James Wier: Still a Rollturner, and some lathes belong in museum, and this is one, used a piece of tool steel to cut pass shape, really slow.
Birmingham Bob: I remember visiting the Henry Ford museum years ago. The person there told me that that day was a special day. "We have a paying job today." There was a steam locomotive in Canada that had very large drive wheels that needed trued up and the only lathe capable of doing it was in the museum. Amongst all the static machinery displays was a guy on that lathe cutting those wheels.

Is their old-fashioned, hand-operated equipment the key to being able to shape difficult alloys?

"Braeburn has been particularly successful in processing difficult-to-work materials such as high-nickel or cobalt alloys and titanium. Braeburn Alloy Steel was founded in 1897....Originally a fully integrated manufacturer and distributor of specialty steel bars, Braeburn now operates as a specialist in metal conversion. The experience and quality level of our people, coupled with our enhanced forging press, hand rolling mills, and new 60-inch Amada saw, allows us to work with virtually any metal alloy in the marketplace today." [BraefurnSteel-history]

BraefurnSteel-tour

In 2022, can you really buy this business and its 215,000 sq. ft. facility for just $185,000? [bizquest] For that price, one could turn it into a museum.

Vandergrift, PA: ATI/US Steel/American Sheet & Tin Plate Mill

(Satellite)

ATI = Allegheny Technologies Incorporated

It looks like ATI is to the Allegheny River what US Steel is to the Monongahela River. That is, it has several plants along the river.  

Andrew Stewart posted two photos with the comment: "Found these on another page of Vandergrift,Pa. I believe ATI is running the former US Steel plant."

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Comments on Andrew's post

There are no smoke stacks today. 

Street View

Joe Sroka posted four photos with the comment: "More ATI Vandergrift."

David Matuscin: Building a new Bright Anneal Line. 

Jim Ordich: There building vertical accumulators tower's.

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