Ghosts of Industry: Johnstown, PA

Where to begin with Johnstown? Arguably, the American steel industry was born there. At one point, the Bethlehem Steel plant ran 11 miles along the river and employed 13,000 people. Johnstown rivals New York City as a place where the immigrant experience was lived most intensely. It's a microcosm of American industrial history and an exemplar of the Ghosts of Industry theme.

Johnstown and the lives of thousands of people who lived there were destroyed in 1889 when a poorly-maintained earthen dam upstream on the Little Conemaugh River gave way and a wave of water, rocks, lumber and trees swept down the valley. The dam was owned by a club where wealthy people had summer houses--some of the same captains of industry who owned and ran the mills. The rich giveth and they taketh away.

This place has survived so much misfortune. Still, there's a lot of positive energy among the townspeople, a couple of great museums and a network of community pride institutions, and it's attempting to reinvent itself as an education and healthcare hub. That's working for Pittsburgh. Hopefully, it can work for Johnstown, too.

Downtown Johnstown and remains of Bethlehem Steel

Ghosts of Industry: Export, PA

It saddens me to see what has happened to organized labor in America. Once a powerful advocate for the rights and dignity of all workers--not just union members--the movement has been beaten down by corporations and right wing politicians to the point where it's a shadow of what it once was. Most workers are once again on their own--and many are powerless in their dealings with employers. The unions, and the people who suffered and sacrificed to build them, are ghosts of industry.

Export, PA, where I grew up, played an important role in the history of organized labor, but I didn't learn about that until many years after I left, when Helene Smith published her fantastic book, Export: A Patch of Tapestry Out of Coal Country America. As part of her portrait of the history and culture of an iconic American coal town, she described the tough living conditions of the immigrant workers who toiled in the mines and recounted the two massive strikes, in 1910 and 1922. These were long, violent affairs that ended in the defeat of the workers when strikebreakers and militias crushed the strikes. Mother Jones came to Export and led protests by miners' wives.

Export's main drag today

Ghosts of Industry -- Research into Lost Times and Places

I'm fascinated with old industries--have been ever since I grew up in, Export, PA, a former coal mining town, and went to college in Pittsburgh at a time when the steel mills were still going full blast and America still felt like the land of opportunity.

One of my favorite bars was called Franks. It was down by the J&L mill along the Monogahela River. It was a beautiful place--all dark hardwood interior with carved wood embellishments. The story was that it been built for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and the interior had been shipped to Pittsburgh afterwards to be Franks. I remember that at night, in front of the bar, the entire sky lit up with the glow from the mills. Also, draft Iron City cost 25 cents. A lost time and place.

Anyway, I'm now fascinated with the ghosts of industries--the old mills, the old cities, and my thoughts about the people, most of whom who are no longer living. They built those cities and mills and created the great American industries and the great American middle class.  This series of photos and stories is my homage to them.

I'm starting with Johnstown and Export. Look for updates as I make them.

For a teaser, here's a shot through a dirty window of the old Cambria Iron Works in Johnstown, where the steel industry was born. These are forges where they tested the steel.