Category Archives: Industrial Opportunity

Processing natural resources is often inherently dirty, as the smoke in this 1950s U.S. Steel Gary Works photo illustrates. Mills are much cleaner today, but the processes still release lead, other heavy metals, and particulates that can cause health issues. Aerial View of Gary Works1950Calumet Regional Archives, Indiana University Northwest The Risks and Repercussions ofContinue reading “Pushing Back on Limits in Industry”

At any one time, over 20 languages could be heard in the steel mills throughout the Calumet region. Because steelworkers often knew little or no English, employment manuals were written in a number of different languages. Employment Manuals, Carnegie Illinois Steel Works (now United States Steel)1910s-1920sGary Public Library Workers from inside and outside the USContinue reading “Diversity in Industry”

G.H. Hammond, inventor of the refrigerated rail car, was the owner of the first packing house in Hammond. Ice, cut at Wolf Lake and Cedar Lakes, kept cars cold enough to safely carry meat to East and West Coast consumers. The G. H. Hammond Co., Car 01225Contemporary replicaHammond Public Library, Suzanne G. Long Local HistoryContinue reading “A Region Abuzz”

By the 1880s, the swampy Calumet region looked to industrialists like the last “undeveloped” space around the southern Great Lakes. It provided land for their vastly expanded operations in close proximity to water, Chicago’s labor supply, and a dense rail network. Guided by this new view and seizing this opportunity, the Calumet region became “theContinue reading “Industrial Opportunity: Introduction”