VINEYARD, Utah County — The new generation travels along I-15 today, near Orem, and likely has no clue of the huge steel mill — belonging to Geneva Corp. — which used to dominate the area.
As a 2007 Deseret News story by Sara Israelsen stated, "The smoky towers and massive production plants may be gone, but Geneva Steel's impact on Utah County is too great to let the memory die."
Now, the 1,681-acre site that once boasted nearly 180 industrial buildings — some a mile long — is filling-in with residential housing. But for six decades, an operating steel mill was located there.
The Deseret News has reported on the historic mill, named for an old gathering place at the edge of Utah Lake, extensively over the years.
It was in 1941 when the U.S. Government decided to build a steel mill there. The location was chosen for its proximity to the railroad and also to nearby coal, iron ore and limestone and dolomite mines in Utah. It was also close to a large potential work force and its inland location in the Mountain West was considered a precaution against closure of the Panama Canal or a Pacific Coast invasion by enemy forces.
By 1943, the plant began operation and its primary products were plate steel and structural shapes for the shipbuilding industry, which were in high demand with World War II underway.
Intriguing were the "help wanted" ads, printed in the Deseret News in 1943, which solicited men, age 17 and older, for blast furnace, power house and mechanical operations.
Geneva played a significant role in the U.S. war efforts, as the largest of several defense-related industries developed in Utah during the World War II.
Geneva had 4,200 workers and produced 634,000 tons of plate steel and another 144,000 tons of shaped steel during the war. The plant also offered salaries to workers that were well above the average pay for the area. This led to a population boom in Utah County.
After a whirlwind couple of years, World War II was over and Geneva operations slowed to a crawl.
An Aug. 21, 1945 article in the Deseret News was headlined: "Utah County meet called to discuss Geneva Plant."
With the war over, the Utah County Industrial Development Committee, in connection with the governor's office, sought to do everything possible to prevent the temporary or permanent closure of Geneva.
In 1946, the War Assets Administration accepted a bid of $47.5 million bid for Geneva from U.S. Steel (even though it was worth almost three times that amount). The mill has back into full production.
Geneva was the West's largest integrated steel operation during the 1940-1950s era.
It completed a revolutionary nitrogen-products plant in 1957, the first of its kind.
By the 1980s, Geneva was plagued, like all U.S. steel industries, by the foreign steel market, high labor costs and pollution issues.
In fact, Geneva shut down temporarily in 1987, because of its high operation costs. The plant restarted later that same year, under new ownership. Joe and Chris Cannon, in particular, helped save the plant and some 1,100 jobs.
An elaborate modernization project began at Geneva in 1989 and by 1991, the Wall Street Journal was referring to Geneva as a "miracle mill."
However, that same year, the plant's open hearth furnaces closed for good.
Throughout the 1990s, the proliferation of cheap foreign steel increasingly plagued Geneva. The company reported its first financial loss in 1992 and by 1999, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
In 2001, after months of losing money, Geneva Steel temporarily terminated most work and the majority of the company's 1,200 workers were laid off.
Geneva Steel filed for bankruptcy for the second time in three years in 2002, asking for a state loan guarantee of up to $10 million to help the steelmaker become a mini-mill. Potential lenders declined to extend the plant credit and its steel history was over.
Photo researcher Ron Fox has assembled a gallery of photos of Geneva Steel, from past issues of the newspaper, which can be seen in full, online at www.deseretnews.com.
e-mail: lynn@desnews.com