Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Youngstown Sheet and Tube had a mill in South Chicago (Iroquois Landing) that located right at the mouth of the Calumet river opposite the South Works and was closed in the early 1960s.

BTW, Russian-owned Severstal owned the former Rouge Steel mill in the early- to mid-2000s and rebuilt the hot end with a new blast furnace in 2006-08, so I'm surprised that the current owner Cliffs isn't operating the mill.

My late Uncle once worked for McClouth Steel Mill
In Trenton I think was the location of it? He would tell me often of the ASC ships coming in there years ago with ore loads for the Steel Making at the McClouth Plant. Two of the ships he’d often see and talk about were the H. Lee White and also the Charles E. Wilson now the John J. Boland. I don’t know of some of the others that unloaded at the McClouth Plant however, I still have old issues and copies of the ASC Soundings newsletters and it lists the American Mariner & Sam Laud along with the White and Wilson! They were always bringing in the ore loads from Marquette. I don’t recall other than Ore if McLouth got stone and coal loads and who delivered them and if any Canadian ships were coming into McClouth bringing in any cargoes and who and what fleets they were? McClouth closed their operations in Trenton sometime during the early 1990s decade I think it was back then?

Guest wrote: April 17, 2026, 11:22 am USS Great Lakes in Ecorse (gone I believe or greatly diminished ) as well as McClouth Steel in Gibraltar. They use to get boats delivering ore.

I meant to say McClouth Steel in Trenton, Mi. The Gibraltar location is now Ferrolux but no boats go in there.

Not to get off the original topic, but isn't Cleveland also down to only one steel mill remaining? What is the outlook for that facility?

USS Great Lakes in Ecorse (gone I believe or greatly diminished ) as well as McClouth Steel in Gibraltar. They use to get boats delivering ore.

The last vestige of South Chicago steelmaking is the former Acme Steel sheet rolling plant at "Acme Bend" on the Little Calumet just west of the old Chicago Regional Port District facility on south Lake Calumet, once part of Interlake Iron Company, later owned by ISG, Arcelor/Mittel, and now Cleveland Cliffs and, I believe, closed a year ago and looking for a buyer.

Sad as it is to say, it almost sounds to me like a similiar situation and story of years ago when they closed and shuttered the Steel Making operations in the Detroit area at Zug Island! The Steel Mill at Zug Island no longer gets or receives shipments of ore pellets anymore and there has been no plans to ever reopen Zug Island at least the Steel Mill anytime soon! Almost sounds very similiar to what is happening now with the Cliffs Dearborn Works. And although this in part is not related to this post, many also forget another less often talked about Steel Mill and operation shuttered its doors and operations years ago. Indiana Harbor at one point in time had two Steel Mills and plants. They were the once LTV East and West Docks. The East would be served by Inland Steel and still is today though it’s now called Cleveland Cliffs East Dock. The West Dock also had name changes like the East Dock yet the West Dock at Indiana Harbor no longer receives anymore ore shipments by ship as only the East Dock at Indiana Harbor receives ore now and sometimes ships load slag from the East Dock as well. I don’t think the West Dock is used anymore as far as for ship traffic to my knowledge and I’m not sure just when the last time the West Dock was used for anything?

Still shuttered. No plans announced to reopen.

At one time, there were five steel mills operating in South Chicago. This was in the 1970's. US Steel South Works, Valley Mould & Iron, Wisconsin Steel, Interlake Steel, and Republic Steel. I believe South Works was last to close around 1990.

Is this mill still shuttered? If so, hard to believe that no steel Mill currently operating in the Detroit area.