Categories
History/Research

Iron and Steel Engineer Year Book (1960)

The content of this post was provided by friend Jack K. of South Bend Indiana. He scanned this article from part of his massive library of AIST/AISE yearbooks. He has many duplicates which he has offered me and I hope to acquire those soon. Thanks Jack! ACME Steel might be called the company that grew […]

Categories
History/Research

Acme Credit Union

The Acme credit union – still in operation today – predates the 1964 Acme/Interlake merger. Even though no business has functioned under the name ‘Acme’ on Perry Ave for decades, the name remains for (today) employees of Cleveland Cliffs. Time to time a few relics pop up on eBay or elsewhere – I have archived […]

Categories
History/Research

Riverdale Continuous Caster Groundbreaking Ceremony

I have written on this topic before, it is often cited as one of the contributing factors to the downfall of the company. A gamble that just didn’t pay off in the end (though ironically, the caster still functions today). Steve Bennett’s speech ‘selling’ the idea to investors is an impassioned plea from a man […]

Categories
Ephemera

Safety Awards

Categories
History/Research

Plant Superintendent Census Records

Recently I have learned of the joy of census records. As of 2024, 1940 and 1950 are currently available to the public for free. In 2030, 1970 will become available as well. Records prior to 1940 are also available, but you’d have to pay. But this is fine, because 1940/1950 are a sweet spot for […]

Categories
History/Research

Directory of Iron and Steel Works (1967)

I have been on the AIST mailing list for some time, I recently glanced at an email advertising their annual directory. This got me thinking – it would be pretty interesting to get a hold of an older directory and see what info could be had regarding Acme/Interlake. So off to eBay I went. I […]

Categories
Ephemera

Letter press block

One of the more odd items I have found on ebay. This is for a letter press, which would ink these blocks, then push a piece of paper into them. To be clear, these are individual blocks and it is unlikely that they were ever printed together like this. I bought them just as an […]

Categories
Interview

A Chat with Juan

How did you come to work at Acme? I worked at Acme from 1990 until it closed. I had worked at USS in Gary in Labor Relations/HR for 15 years before coming to Acme. Jerry Shope, Richard Stefan and Joe Dula recruited me from USS. Working at Acme were some of  the best years of […]

Categories
History/Research

A Visit to the County Clerk

Searching through Cook County records is non stop fun if you are inclined to do some madness. You can check it out here. One of the big problems is that the entity names vary, or at least vary how they were recorded. This is illustrated by the heading at the top of the page. And […]

Categories
History/Research

Links to the past in Riverdale

This footage was shot in February 2023. It was supposed to be part of a video for YouTube which was not related to Acme. I decided not to use it because that video was getting a bit long. But I knew I might not get out this way again (not on bike, at least) anytime […]