WAY BACK WEDNESDAY: (Steel Mills Part 4) Although not an integrated mill, Portage’s Midwest Steel once had plans to be a fully integrated mill with a steel city attached. The economy and the decline in American-made steel put an end to those plans. Twice.
In 1929, National Steel began buying land around Burns Ditch with plans to build a new mill in the dunes. Samuel Insull’s company was tasked with finding and purchasing the land for National Steel, including land owned by Consumers Co. for sand mining.
In January 1930, the company announced that within the next three years, they would build a new mill costing upwards of $50,000,000 as well as a town and harbor. The new town would be called Port Williams, after the president of National Steel. The Vidette-Messenger reported that the company envisioned using Burns Ditch as a “natural harbor,” but other evidence shows that the company planned to build a harbor to the east.
At the time, the steel industry in the Region was booming. Construction in the Midwest was high. There were signs of recovery in the stock market, and the Gary Works was running at 90%. The Great Depression had not yet made its impact on Region steel.
In June 1930, the company announced the creation of a new subsidiary, Midwest Steel. The entire project was expected to be completed by the end of 1933 and would require moving the Indiana Harbor Belt Line tracks that ran through the property.
These plans did not last very long. Within a year, the economy was collapsing. The plans for Midwest Steel were put on hold.
The New Deal gave some hope for American industry. One public works project was the plan to develop a port in Northwest Indiana. National Steel committed to building a mill if the port was approved, but there was a back-and-forth regarding federal approval for the port.
In May 1936, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected the port proposal saying that the benefits did not outweigh the $3 million cost. Throughout the latter ½ of the 1930s, the Army Corps of Engineers would conduct multiple assessments of the value in a port. Some politicians got involved too, saying that the port would benefit one single company, National Steel. Therefore, the use of public funds was not appropriate.
Throughout the 1940s, although industry had a lot of work to do, there was no focus on building new mills. But in the 1950s, with the expansion of housing, auto industry, roadways, and the economy, steel was once again in demand.
With a strong economy and steel in demand, National Steel took up the project again, this time without plans for a city and with the intent of having public funds pay for a port. Construction began in 1959. As with many industrial areas, the construction of the mill resulted in the organization of a town. Portage incorporated as a town in 1959 and would incorporate as a city when Bethlehem Steel arrived (see next week’s post). Operations at the $103 million mill began in 1961.
In 1974, the company announced plans to build an integrated mill at Midwest Steel. The plant would cost $1 billion and employ another 2,300 people. It was a big announcement in a big steel industry. Unfortunately, an economic recession in 1975 and the increase in foreign steel delayed the plans and then put them on hold indefinitely.
A huge Thank You to Serena Ard, Curator/Historian – Westchester Township History Museum for her authorship of this week’s Way Back Wednesday and we look forward to next week’s final post in this series.
Please check out the new “Steel: The Region’s Legacy Industry” exhibit on display through the end of the year at Westchester Township History Museum (
https://www.facebook.com/WestchesterPublicLibrary) located at 700 West Porter Avenue in Chesterton.
