Acme Coke Works, Illinois

The ACME Coke plant, which preservationists sought to save as a relic to commemorate the steel industry of the region, is one of several old steel relics in the Calumet River area, south of Chicago. The plant ceased operation in 2001, and was left orphaned by the bankrupt Acme Steel Company, which had a plant another few miles up the Calumet (still abandoned too). For the following ten years, it just sat there, being unofficially explored. Attempts to preserve it failed after political will and resources never materialized, and the site has been mostly razed.

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