Youngstown Sheet and Tube Campbell Works, Ohio

Expansive fields of concrete slabs, foundations, and metal sheds are some of the remains of the Campbell Works of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, part of the expansive steelworks that existed along the Mahoning River, south of Youngstown. For more than half a century, Youngstown Sheet and Tube was the dominant steel company in the Mahoning Valley, and one of the largest steel companies in the nation, with two more large plants near Chicago. The Campbell Works had four blast furnaces, 12 open hearth furnaces, and 381 coke ovens. Across the river to the north is the site of Republic Steel’s Youngstown Works. Republic Iron and Steel was founded in Youngstown in 1899, and became the third largest steel company in the nation, after U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel. With the decline in the industry, Republic became part of LTV Steel in 1984, then LTV Steel filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Some former steel mills in the Mahoning Valley have buildings that are still used as steel finishing plants, and some that make steel from scrap. Many more are inactive.