by William Lafferty » July 10, 2010, 9:32 pm
Let me take you on a tour of the Calumet River as it existed when I was a kid, fifty years ago, to give you some idea of the mammoth "de-industrialization" that has taken place along its banks over that half-century. At the entrance to the river, on the north, lay the massive facilities of the South Works of US Steel, in 1959 one of the world's most massively concentrated integrated steel works, employing over twenty thousand, with two slips (one off the lake, the other off the Calumet) to serve Pittsburgh SS boats unloading ore, or the occasional salty loading coke. It is now abandoned grassland. Across from the South Works was the Iroquois Iron Works of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube plant which also received iron ore along its river frontage to feed its three blast furnaces. YS&T closed the plant in the '60s and it became Iroquois Landing, touted to be a container facility that never fulfilled expectations, but is the only major landing for foreign vessels on the Calumet today.
Past the 92nd Street bridge, on the south, was a turning basin the banks of whicht housed the floating equipment of the Great Lakes D&DCo, headquartered in Chicago, but long gone from that spot. Across from there was a giant grain elevator that saw continuous service loading lakers and salties into the '60s, but long gone now. Next door was Howard Slip, home to the Calumet SB&DDCo, a small firm that nevertheless became a pre-eminent builder of tugs and towboats, and had a huge World War II building program. It closed in 1962. Across the river from it was the old South Chicago Coal & Fuel dock, fronting 95th Street. In the '50s the yard became International Steamship Terminals and was the primary berthing spot for foreign vessels on the river into the late '70s. It now stores pleasure craft.
Just south of 100th Street on the east bank was the shipbuilding plant of the American SBCo, which, as the Chicago SBCo, built some of the largest and most innovative craft on the lakes until after World War when it reverted to repair and conversion work only, but maintained a high level of activity until it, too, closed in the '70s. Across the river from it is the KCBX coal facility which began life in 1948 as Rail-to-Water Transfer, created by a consortium of primarily Kentucky coal producers to provide water shipment of their product. It was built on the site of several major warehouses, including the oddly named Crooks Terminal, which serviced package freighters before the war. With end of the package freight trade after the war, RtW purchased the land and built the facility.
Farther south on the west was the huge General Mills grain elevator which saw much traffic until the 1970s and closed down in 1995. Across from it to the east was (is) the large plant of the Marblehead Lime Co. that received continuous shipments of stone from both self-unloaders and straight-deckers alike. It is now Carmeuse.
Below 106th was, to the east, the mammoth Wisconsin Steel Works of International Harvester, which had two slips for receiving coal and iron. Across the river was Valley Mold & Iron, with dockage on the river for receiving ore, stone, and coal. Below them, on both sides of the river, was the Interlake Iron Co. with a slip to the east and dockage down both sides of the river. All of these installations had huge clamshell bridges for unloading lake boats. Down the east side was the Republic Steel plant with its Hulett unloaders. Across from Republic were the mammoth grain elevators of Central Soya to the north and Cargill to the south, which transferred immense tonnages of grain. Today, virtually all this gargantuan industrial presence is completely gone.
Beyond the Ford Motor Company plant at the bend (still there), on the south shore of Lake Calumet and the Little Calumet River was Calumet Harbor Terminal, like International Steamship an early destination for salties after the war. During the war Pullman-Standard established a shipbuilding plant at the site and produced PC-Es and LSMs for the navy. To its west was Lake Calumet Harbor, the Chicago Regional Port District facility that was the hub of foreign shipping at Chicago, encompassing four large transit sheds and warehouses and two gigantic, state-of-the-art grain elevators at the west. Although the grain elevators are partially used today, the rest of the facility is decrepit (as seen in Steven Seagal’s 1988 film Above the Law).
In May 1959 my father and I took a boat trip on the Wendella sponsored by the Chicago Academy of Sciences that travelled the South Branch to the Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Cal-Sag, and up the Calumet, returning to the Loop by Lake Michigan. There were 14 salties and two lakers (both at the elevators) at Lake Calumet, 14 lakers on the Calumet, and three salties (two at International Steamship, including Louis Dreyfus’s Charles L-D) and one at the grain elevator between 92nd and 95th. Inside the breakwater were at least half-a-dozen salties awaiting berths, and two Paterson canallers rafted together and two Upper Lakes boats (R. Bruce Angus and Howard L. Shaw) at anchor, among others, waiting to load grain.
Those were the days.
Let me take you on a tour of the Calumet River as it existed when I was a kid, fifty years ago, to give you some idea of the mammoth "de-industrialization" that has taken place along its banks over that half-century. At the entrance to the river, on the north, lay the massive facilities of the South Works of US Steel, in 1959 one of the world's most massively concentrated integrated steel works, employing over twenty thousand, with two slips (one off the lake, the other off the Calumet) to serve Pittsburgh SS boats unloading ore, or the occasional salty loading coke. It is now abandoned grassland. Across from the South Works was the Iroquois Iron Works of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube plant which also received iron ore along its river frontage to feed its three blast furnaces. YS&T closed the plant in the '60s and it became Iroquois Landing, touted to be a container facility that never fulfilled expectations, but is the only major landing for foreign vessels on the Calumet today.
Past the 92nd Street bridge, on the south, was a turning basin the banks of whicht housed the floating equipment of the Great Lakes D&DCo, headquartered in Chicago, but long gone from that spot. Across from there was a giant grain elevator that saw continuous service loading lakers and salties into the '60s, but long gone now. Next door was Howard Slip, home to the Calumet SB&DDCo, a small firm that nevertheless became a pre-eminent builder of tugs and towboats, and had a huge World War II building program. It closed in 1962. Across the river from it was the old South Chicago Coal & Fuel dock, fronting 95th Street. In the '50s the yard became International Steamship Terminals and was the primary berthing spot for foreign vessels on the river into the late '70s. It now stores pleasure craft.
Just south of 100th Street on the east bank was the shipbuilding plant of the American SBCo, which, as the Chicago SBCo, built some of the largest and most innovative craft on the lakes until after World War when it reverted to repair and conversion work only, but maintained a high level of activity until it, too, closed in the '70s. Across the river from it is the KCBX coal facility which began life in 1948 as Rail-to-Water Transfer, created by a consortium of primarily Kentucky coal producers to provide water shipment of their product. It was built on the site of several major warehouses, including the oddly named Crooks Terminal, which serviced package freighters before the war. With end of the package freight trade after the war, RtW purchased the land and built the facility.
Farther south on the west was the huge General Mills grain elevator which saw much traffic until the 1970s and closed down in 1995. Across from it to the east was (is) the large plant of the Marblehead Lime Co. that received continuous shipments of stone from both self-unloaders and straight-deckers alike. It is now Carmeuse.
Below 106th was, to the east, the mammoth Wisconsin Steel Works of International Harvester, which had two slips for receiving coal and iron. Across the river was Valley Mold & Iron, with dockage on the river for receiving ore, stone, and coal. Below them, on both sides of the river, was the Interlake Iron Co. with a slip to the east and dockage down both sides of the river. All of these installations had huge clamshell bridges for unloading lake boats. Down the east side was the Republic Steel plant with its Hulett unloaders. Across from Republic were the mammoth grain elevators of Central Soya to the north and Cargill to the south, which transferred immense tonnages of grain. Today, virtually all this gargantuan industrial presence is completely gone.
Beyond the Ford Motor Company plant at the bend (still there), on the south shore of Lake Calumet and the Little Calumet River was Calumet Harbor Terminal, like International Steamship an early destination for salties after the war. During the war Pullman-Standard established a shipbuilding plant at the site and produced PC-Es and LSMs for the navy. To its west was Lake Calumet Harbor, the Chicago Regional Port District facility that was the hub of foreign shipping at Chicago, encompassing four large transit sheds and warehouses and two gigantic, state-of-the-art grain elevators at the west. Although the grain elevators are partially used today, the rest of the facility is decrepit (as seen in Steven Seagal’s 1988 film Above the Law).
In May 1959 my father and I took a boat trip on the Wendella sponsored by the Chicago Academy of Sciences that travelled the South Branch to the Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Cal-Sag, and up the Calumet, returning to the Loop by Lake Michigan. There were 14 salties and two lakers (both at the elevators) at Lake Calumet, 14 lakers on the Calumet, and three salties (two at International Steamship, including Louis Dreyfus’s Charles L-D) and one at the grain elevator between 92nd and 95th. Inside the breakwater were at least half-a-dozen salties awaiting berths, and two Paterson canallers rafted together and two Upper Lakes boats (R. Bruce Angus and Howard L. Shaw) at anchor, among others, waiting to load grain.
Those were the days.