Acme Steel, Chicago Coke Plant
Just a couple days after my Thanksgiving feast, I headed down to the plant for my first visit in over a month. This one was mandatory and I had planned it for the better part of a year. In late November 2001, the plant began it’s shutdown under the thought of a feasible but quickly […]
It’s been a long time since I had a serious mission to accomplish at the plant. The past 5-6 visits were brief and mostly just to hang out. Nothing wrong with that, but I have longed for last winter when the sense of urgency was palpable at 6am as I lay in bed on my […]
What you see above is the very first of many hundreds of texts Doug Podgorny and I have exchanged in the past 9 months. I was standing on Baltimore Ave, about to embark for a very chilly ride to the plant. We had just exchanged phone numbers via email the day before and he alluded […]
I look back on when I first started my research, and later began to build this website….if you told me then I’d make a couple friends as a result, I wouldn’t believe you. Former plant instrumentation supervisor and general good guy Steve Buckner sent me the above text out of the blue and I could […]
I spend a lot of time on ebay looking for Acme/Interlake artifacts and I have come across some interesting historical items, a few of which I even purchased. I came across an Acme Steel patch which was clearly used and authentic a while back and before I even considered what to do with it, I […]
Almost since the first time I visited the plant, I badly wanted to come and visit in the evening. A big part of that would be to have a beer(s), as I do my best to avoid day drinking. This would almost require staying the night somewhere in the area however due to the distance, […]
At times it can be difficult to unearth new information about a business that folded 20 years ago. A little extra effort goes a long way and something may turn up. Or sometimes, you just get lucky. I ran across a video simply titled ‘Acme Steel’ on YouTube recently and could hardly believe my eyes. […]
I’m not sure exactly when I first purchased shish-kabob meat from Baltimore foods, but this video is from sometime in 2018 and I have it marked as my third trip. I guess that makes sense because I can find photos of labels from 2016 and 2017. Quite a collection I have here! I don’t know […]
Many cold winter mornings at Acme, early on Saturdays, as I’d be deep in documents, hands blackened with coal/coke dust and then…..a peculiar sound. Instinctively, I’d hold my breath, then creep to the window and peer out, like a scared animal ready to defend itself. Only to find – a bus. CTA bus #71 terminates […]
During my last visit I made a stop at Dr. Lin’s office. I’ve been in there many times before and picked up a few things, but this time it seemed different. Did the wind create some upheaval of documents? Other explorers perhaps? Or maybe it is all just my perception? At any rate I got […]