Chicago's earliest metal-working industries were small in scale, and located near the Chicago River in what is now central Chicago. The first steel mills and blast furnaces, supplying them with raw material, were not much further out. As iron and steel works grew enormously in size, companies moved to remote sites, with abundant—and cheap—land and water, mostly on the southern metropolitan fringe with its ample harbors for lake-borne iron ore imports and proximity to coal supplies. Large plants were built in southeast Chicago and northwestern Indiana, where lonely sand dunes and swamps were transformed into vast industrial areas. Joliet and Chicago Heights emerged as lesser steel centers, and early wire mills centered in nearby DeKalb (not shown) and Joliet. Small steel making operations, rolling mills, and pipe and wire works, were somewhat more widely scattered along the region's railways. By 2000 most steel making in the City of Chicago had ceased.

Author: Michael P. Conzen and Christopher P. Thale
Source: Newberry Library