Acme Steel, Chicago Coke Plant
There seems to be a lack of drone footage at the plant floating around the internet. So it was a good thing when my brother purchased a unit of his own! He has visited the plant with me twice before and was eager to go back, not just to get some good video but also […]
I first made acquaintance with Bob a few weeks ago when he reached out via email. He was interested in making a return to the plant (he had visited three times previously). I am always ready to head over, but when the prospect of doing so with a true tour guide – a real life […]
The blizzard of January 1978 was a huge storm mostly on the east coast, but it clipped the southeast side of Chicago with 14 inches of snow and plenty of wind. I remember it because I worked 32 hours. It was January 26-27th, two weeks after being hired at Interlake. I was still in coal […]
Bob Green (clock# 253) reached out to me after finding my website and we had a great back and forth via email, which is posted here. Bob has other contributions in the pipeline, and we also plan to visit the plant together soon and document that via video. Stay tuned! Bob, thanks so much for […]
I started working at Interlake Steel January 11 1978. I started at the coke plant, in the coal handling department. It was below zero and I woke up with the flu that morning. I was 20 years old and figured I better not miss my first day. I was in the labor gang and was […]
24 hour circular charts were the recording medium of choice at Acme. These charts were used to record a variety of metrics both at the batteries (where recording was done in the coal bunker ground floor) at the BP Plant (charts were stored in the BP Office). BP Plant Charts In the BP office a […]
This is a guest post, written by South Deering resident Keaton Soriano. We met very briefly in December 2021 when he was at the plant visiting with one of his high school instructors. He later reached out (not necessarily knowing that the person he was emailing was the person he saw at the plant). I […]
This guest piece was written and submitted by local historian Bob Lalich. His research on this topic is unprecedented and nothing similar is available to our knowledge. Big thanks to Bob for sharing this valuable information! By-Products Coke Corp plant was constructed in 1905. The plant was served by a dedicated railroad – Calumet, Hammond […]
I’ve retrieved a number of artifacts from from the plant but the best finds have been the friends I’ve made. Reggie reached out recently and we are cooking up some projects which I will share soon. In the meantime, we chatted for about half an hour and I put together a quick slideshow based on […]
I have retrieved countless documents and artifacts from the plant but the amount of video or audio evidence is limited. Luckily, I have located some of each and all have proven valuable if not priceless. First up is the ovens department training video. This easily is the best evidence of the plant that exists today. […]