Gary, Indiana: What Happened to the City U.S. Steel Built?

In 1906, U.S. Steel founded a city on the sandy shore of Lake Michigan and named it after its chairman: Gary, Indiana. By 1970, its mill employed over 30,000 people. By 2023: just 2,246. And the mill is still running. Gary was laid out as a company town, a model home for steelworkers. Immigrants came from Europe, then Black families from the rural South in the Great Migration, looking for work in the mills. In 1919, some 300,000 steelworkers walked off the job. In Gary, the governor declared martial law and 4,000 federal troops marched into the city. Judge Elbert Gary refused even to meet the union leaders. In 1967, Richard Hatcher won a historic election and became one of the first Black mayors of a major American city. Then tens of thousands of white residents left for the suburbs, over one hundred major businesses moved from downtown to Merrillville, and the American steel industry entered a severe crisis. This is the story of how one corporation built a city, and then learned to survive without it. What you're seeing: archival photographs and film, early postcards, a 1924 portrait painting, period drawings, a 1923 political cartoon, documents, tokens, maps, and recent photographs of Gary as it stands today. All of it is real, and none of it was generated or reconstructed. The voice and the music are AI-made. Archival sources: U.S. National Archives (EPA DOCUMERICA, 1973; World War I "Industries of War" photographs), Library of Congress (Prints & Photographs; Historic American Buildings Survey), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian, Internet Archive (films "To Each Other", 1943, and "Unfinished Business", 1948), Wikimedia Commons and Flickr contributors. The 1973 aerial of Gary Works is a color-retouched copy of the National Archives original. Did your family work in the mills of Gary or another steel town? Tell us in the comments. Subscribe to Forgotten Factories US so you don't miss our next film. Chapters 0:00 Gary's Landmarks Stand Abandoned 1:02 Gary Emptied Out, Mill Kept Running 3:45 J.P. Morgan Merges Steel Empires, Gary Founded 6:48 The Great Steel Strike of 1919 8:36 The Great Migration Changes Gary 11:23 Gary Works Booms During WWII 13:39 Gary's Segregation and Neighborhoods 15:47 Hatcher Takes Office, the City Splits 18:21 Steel Industry Restructures, Mill Survives Image credits (Wikimedia Commons, used under their licenses): Craig Finlay CC BY 2.0; Peter Fitzgerald, CC BY 3.0; Takingactioningary, CC BY-SA 3.0; greglaskiewicz, CC BY 3.0; Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0; Grešla, CC BY-SA 4.0; Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 4.0; WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0; Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0; Iris Schneider, CC BY 4.0; ElbertHGary, CC BY-SA 4.0; Adam Moss, CC BY-SA 2.0; Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0; Steve Shook, CC BY 2.0; Tweedle, CC BY-SA 4.0; Driven0711, CC BY-SA 4.0; Abi Skipp, CC BY 2.0; Ianmacm at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0; David Wilson, CC BY 2.0; chicagogeek, CC BY-SA 2.0; AlphaBeta135, CC BY 4.0; unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0; formulanone, CC BY-SA 2.0. #GaryIndiana #USSteel #RustBelt