Youngstown, Ohio

Youngstown is a city located in Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio, on the Mahoning River, 67 miles southeast of Cleveland, Ohio.

Industry

Locally endowed with coal and iron, the first blast furnace was built to the east of town in 1803. Youngstown soon developed a thriving steel industry. From the 1920s through the 1960s, the city became an important industrial hub with large furnaces and foundries of such companies as Republic Steel and U.S. Steel. It was headquarters for the huge Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, one of the most important steel producers in the country. Unfortunately, the city was not as economically diversified as bigger industrial cities like Chicago, Pittsburgh or Cleveland, had been so when economic changes forced the closure of plants through the 1970s there was not much to fall back on. The September 1977 closure of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube plant is considered by many to be the "swan song" of the old area steel industry.

Related Topics:
Coal - Iron - Blast furnace - 1803 - Steel industry - 1920s - 1960s - Foundries - Republic Steel - U.S. Steel - Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company - Chicago - Pittsburgh - Cleveland - 1970s - 1977

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Today there is still some steel and metalworking, but not like days of yore. The largest employer in the city now is Youngstown State University, an urban public campus with about 13,000 students. The largest industrial employers in the metro area are General Motors' Lordstown auto assembly plant and Delphi Packard Electric Systems and the WCI Steel plant, both in Warren, Ohio.

Related Topics:
Metalworking - Youngstown State University - General Motors - Lordstown - WCI Steel - Warren, Ohio

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The decline of Youngstown's industry and the resulting effects on its workers was depicted in Bruce Springsteen's song "Youngstown" from his The Ghost of Tom Joad album; he made a point of performing in Youngstown on his subsequent tour.

Related Topics:
Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad

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