Geneva Steel was a
steel mill
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...
located in
Vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, founded during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
to enhance national steel output. It operated from December 1944 to November 2001. Its unique name came from a resort that once operated nearby on the shore of
Utah Lake
Utah Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in the center of Utah County, Utah, United States. It lies in Utah Valley, surrounded by the Provo- Orem metropolitan area. The lake's only river outlet, the Jordan River, is a tributary of the Great Salt ...
.
The steel mill was used in a dance scene in the 1984 film ''
Footloose
Footloose may refer to:
* ''Footloose'' (1984 film), a musical film
** ''Footloose'' (1984 soundtrack)
** "Footloose" (song), performed by Kenny Loggins
* ''Footloose'' (2011 film), a remake of the 1984 film
** ''Footloose'' (2011 soundtrack) ...
'' with Kevin Bacon.
Construction
![USS Steel sign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/USS_Steel_sign.JPG)
The Geneva Steel mill was constructed with federal funds from November 1941 to December 1944 by
Columbia Steel Company
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
and
United States Steel Corporation
United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...
(U.S. Steel). Vineyard, Utah, was chosen as the location for the new plant because
iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
,
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
,
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
, and other resources necessary for primary steel making are located in nearby areas of Utah, and because
Utah Valley
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
is far inland, away from possible Japanese attack on the West Coast.
Geneva Steel operated as a US government facility until June 1946, when it was sold for $47.5 million to U.S. Steel, a vast underbid compared to the mill's estimated $144 million value.
Operation
The plant was an
integrated steel mill. Raw materials were shipped in by
rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
, processed into steel and steel products, and then reshipped by rail and truck to their final market. The plant, in addition to having all of the facilities for primary steel making, included on-site conversion of coal into
coke, plus other facilities for post-processing of coal byproducts, including production of
inorganic fertilizers.
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...
s converted raw iron ores into
pig iron
Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silic ...
, and final conversion into steel was via
open hearth furnace
An open-hearth furnace or open hearth furnace is any of several kinds of industrial Industrial furnace, furnace in which excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of pig iron to Steelmaking, produce steel. Because steel is difficult to ma ...
s.
Rolling mill
In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...
facilities for forming steel into plate,
pipe
Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to:
Objects
* Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules
** Piping, the use of pipes in industry
* Smoking pipe
** Tobacco pipe
* Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circular ...
, and some
structural shapes
Structural steel is a category of steel used for making construction materials in a variety of shapes. Many structural steel shapes take the form of an elongated beam having a Profile (engineering), profile of a specific cross section (geometry ...
were also located there.
At its peak of operations Geneva Steel was the largest steel mill west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
and produced 60 percent of the steel used in the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
.
World War II
Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into development. Geneva shipped its first order in April 1944, comprising over 600 tons of steel plate. The thousands of new jobs created by the plant were hard to fill as many men were overseas fighting; women began working to make up the difference, filling 25 percent of the plant's workforce. To acknowledge Utah's and Geneva Steel's contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.
Economic importance and continuing viability
During its operation Geneva Steel was important to
Utah County
Utah County is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of Utah. The county seat and largest city is Provo, which is the state's third-largest city, and the largest outside of Salt Lake County. As of the 2020 United States Census, the ...
's economy, providing thousands of jobs and attracting many ancillary businesses to the area. As time went on, however, the distance from the plant to any major steel market, increasing labor costs, foreign imports, and the general decline of manufacturing industries in the United States contributed to the decay of the business.
On at least one occasion, Geneva Steel
paid its workers in $2 bills to emphasize their importance to the local economy.
Early in 1987 the mill shut down temporarily, but reopened later after the mill was spun off from US Steel and purchased by local business interests.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, students from
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
(BYU) protested the pollution, particularly the particulate matters, emitted from the steel operation. They carried signs at the entrance of BYU football games that included slogans like, "Pollution makes God barf."
The Cannon Brothers (
Christopher
Christopher is the English language, English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek language, Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or ''Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Jesus ...
and
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
) bought the plant
with the help of Utah Senator
Orrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator ...
. They tried to keep it open for as long as possible. However, in March 1999 the company filed bankruptcy and reorganized with a $110 million loan via the Emergency Steel Loan Guarantee Act of 1999, but the reorganization attempt failed. Geneva Steel filed bankruptcy again and shut down permanently in November 2002.
There is some controversy regarding their alleged pollution of Utah Lake. Contaminated groundwater under a former Utah steel mill may be moving toward Utah Lake according to a recent report conducted by a
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
engineering company. The
Utah Department of Environmental Quality The Utah Department of Environmental Quality is a state governmental organization located in Salt Lake City, Utah. DEQ's mission is to safeguard public health and our quality of life by protecting and enhancing the environment. DEQ implements State ...
is investigating the CH2M Hill study of the Geneva Steel site to determine if contaminated groundwater is moving beyond the facility boundary. The facility site and environmental contaminants are being remediated under
EPA's voluntary
Brownfields
In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...
cleanup program.
U.S. Steel operated the site in the early 1940s, producing millions of tons of steel for the war effort. After the war, U.S. Steel ran the company until 1987 when it sold the plant to Geneva Steel Company. During its years of operation, the facility produced wastes contaminated with human carcinogens and hazardous substances including arsenic, lead, zinc, nickel, acids, PCBs and petroleum products. Arsenic, ammonia, and benzene recently showed up in a number of groundwater monitoring wells around the perimeter of the plant. The Utah Department of Environmental Quality is still unsure, however, if toxic chemicals are definitely moving toward Utah Lake.
Liquidation deals
Liquidation of Geneva Steel's substantial assets may have broad effects on Utah County's future development.
Geneva Steel's of land were sold in November 2005 for $46.8 million to
Anderson Geneva, a sister company to
Anderson Development, which plans to reuse the land for a wide range of purposes, including the ''
FrontRunner
FrontRunner is a commuter rail train operated by the Utah Transit Authority that operates along the Wasatch Front in north-central Utah with service from the Ogden Intermodal Transit Center in central Weber County through Davis County, Salt ...
''
commuter rail
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...
corridor.
The land must undergo environmental cleanups before any development can occur, with most of the cost paid for by U.S. Steel.
The mill equipment will not remain because it has been sold for $40 million to the Chinese firm
Qingdao Iron & Steel Group.
Most of Geneva Steel's water rights were sold to the
Central Utah Water Conservancy District in May 2005 for $88.5 million, with some additional water rights sold for $14 million to the private firm Summit Vineyard, LLC, which has used them to support their
Lake Side power plant
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many pow ...
. Its iron ore properties were sold for $10 million to Palladon Ventures Ltd, which hopes to build a new steel mill with modern technology closer to the iron ore mines.
Geneva Steel's 7,000 tons of
emission reduction credits are also for sale. In January 2006, local citizens announced they were forming a group to attempt to purchase and retire those credits in order to maintain local air quality. The exact price of the credits will be determined by the open market, but estimates of the value of the emissions reduction credits range from $350,000 to $35,000,000.
Use as a movie set 1984
The movie ''
Footloose
Footloose may refer to:
* ''Footloose'' (1984 film), a musical film
** ''Footloose'' (1984 soundtrack)
** "Footloose" (song), performed by Kenny Loggins
* ''Footloose'' (2011 film), a remake of the 1984 film
** ''Footloose'' (2011 soundtrack) ...
'' was set in a fictional town in Oklahoma, but was filmed entirely in Utah County, Utah, part of the Provo metropolitan area. The Geneva steel mill was the setting for a dance montage by the lead character, Ren McCormack.
The site today
Early in 2007, the site made headlines in the Utah press, as owner Anderson Geneva made an offer to
Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 2 ...
. The deal included moving their stadium to the Geneva site and they (Anderson Geneva) would offer up the land for free. The offer was subsequently turned down.
Timpanogos
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depressi ...
is located across the street from the old Geneva Steel Pipe Mill facility on the site of an old truck stop serving the many trucks that visited the plant. The building is constructed from salvaged materials and beams from various mill buildings with the interior walls, doors, and partitions coming from other mill buildings and offices.
In 2014
Utah Valley University
Utah Valley University (UVU) is a public university in Orem, Utah. UVU offers master's, bachelor's, associate degrees, and certificates. Previously called Utah Valley State College, the school attained university status in July 2008.
History ...
purchased 125 acres of the Geneva Steel site in order to expand to a new “West” Campus.
See also
*
C. Arden Pope
C. Arden Pope III (born c. 1954) is an American professor of economics at Brigham Young University and one of the world's foremost experts in environmental science. He received his B.S. from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1978 and his Ph.D. ...
References
External sources
{{commons category, Geneva Steel
E. Dixon Larson collection on Geneva Steel, MSS 1865 L. Tom Perry Special Collections,
Harold B. Lee Library
The Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) is the main academic library of Brigham Young University (BYU) located in Provo, Utah. The library started as a small collection of books in the president's office in 1876 before moving in 1891. The Heber J. Gr ...
,
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
Flyover of old steel mill facilitiesin second half of video.
Ironworks and steel mills in the United States
Economy of Utah
Buildings and structures in Utah County, Utah
Industrial buildings and structures in Utah
Industrial buildings completed in 1944
U.S. Steel