Duluth’s steel mill was all about moving production closer to raw product; instead of shipping ore via Dock 5 or Allouez the steel could be forged locally. While I explore the plant’s ruinous footprint, I talk about the history of the Duluth US Steel Mill from construction to demolition.
It’s an industrial lighthouse keeping watch over the Mississippi and its favorite city. Some read the flashing neon as “GOLD MEDAL FLOUR”. I read “REMEMBER”.
It was a hospital, not an insane asylum, they insisted. Starting in 1885, this Westborough mental institution was both and housed thousands at a time.
White Pine Mine was a major copper producer in the U.P. from the 1950s to the 1990s, making it one of the last of its kind. Now, all there is to see is a mothballed smelter, a ruined mill, and a ghost town.
When their husbands clocked-in at Studebaker across the street, the women of Wilson Brothers lined up behind sewing machines to earn a paycheck themselves.
When a brewery cave system from the 1870s opens its lungs for a breath of downtown air, you better jump in head first, or you might never get another chance. Journey underground to see the panoramic and multi-level cave with ceilings of sand and stairs of stone.