|
Fall & Winter 1996
|
Rivers of Steel
Steel Valley Inustrial Corporation
Forged in the Mon Valley
There is a wealth of material that can be used to tell the story of Big Steel in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Although much has been lost in the last 20 years as the coal and steel industries declinded, the region is filled with historical and cultural resources.
The key resources can be grouped into four primary categories:
1. Steel and related industrial sites
2. Historic and cultural resources
3. Natural resources
4. Transportation resources
The history and stories within these categories are interwoven and complex: skilled workers, entrepreneurs, immigrants, unions, meteoric industrial growth and decline, pollution and clean-up, iron, steel, coal, coke, railroads, company and towns and the natural resources of the hills and valleys.
Individually, these resources appear as unrelated fragments, rich and diverse, but without any apparent unifying framework to tie them together. There is, however, a strong central framework - the river valleys. Within this unifying physical framework (the river valleys) and a unifying programmatic theme (the story and the people of Big Steel), Rivers of Steel was forged.
For more information contact:
Steel Industrial Heritage Corp.
338 East Ninth Avenue
Homestead, PA 15120
724-464-4020