Statement of Purpose:
This website intends to serve as a guide to the history of Cleveland's Industrial Valley. All information was compiled by Stephen Parrino, Jonas Baird, Samuel Mather and Gabriel Nestlerode and is licensed to Dobama Theater.
Soo Locks The Soo Locks are four canal locks in two separate canals on the St Mary’s River. They allow for travel between Lake Superior and Huron which previously wasn’t possible due to the 21 foot drop in elevation. [21] Before this, the St. Mary’s river was always an important waterway for trade, but after a mining boom in the 1840s, the need to have a more efficient route to Lake Superior became necessary. The canals were built, along with tandem locks in 1855. [21] Some time later, another lock was built to support larger ships in 1881. [21] Overall, the Soo Locks allowed for transportation of materials such as iron and copper by decreasing the time it took to cross that area from a few days to mere hours.
Arcelormittal/Cliffs Info Elise worked at the ArcelorMittal Mill, [7] which has since merged with Cleveland Cliffs. [3] In 2016, her company was described by an article on Cleveland.com as being home to “the shooting flame that can easily be seen from I-77 [which] comes from a stack atop the No. 1 Steel Producing building. The flare is a pollution-control device, burning off gases from the steelmaking process so they don't enter the atmosphere. ArcelorMittal Cleveland is considered the most productive steel mill in the world.” [2]
Since the events of Rust, the forces at work in the steel industry and in Cleveland have continued to evolve. Currently, there is only one active steel mill in Cleveland, Cleveland Cliffs, which bought out Elise’s plant for half a billion dollars in 2020. This plant continues to be one of the most efficient plants in the world, and remains an iconic fixture of the industrial skyline in Cleveland.
Neighborhood Progress Inc. Being a city in decline, Cleveland always has the need for development and rebuilding. Neighborhood Progress INC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to diverting the necessary resources to coordinated development projects. It was formed in 1988 by multiple other organizations, those being Cleveland Tomorrow, Cleveland Foundation, George Gund Foundation, and Standard Oil of Ohio. [17] In its early years, its central focus was to support community development corporations, also known as CDCs. [17] They work with city governments, communities, and development corporations to achieve their goals. Neighborhood Progress is based on Shaker Blvd in Cleveland.
The focus of Neighborhood Progress shifted during the Great Recession, the largest economic collapse in the US since the Great Depression. The housing prices during these times plummeted and unemployment rates were through the roof. In Cleveland neighborhoods, property values that the corporation was working to grow had a sharp decrease. In order to combat the negative effects of the recession, Neighborhood Progress worked with communities to make use of vacant land for things such as side yards and gardens. [17] They also partnered with local governments to address and deal with the falling property values and increased vacancy.
The Columbus Street Bridge War There exists a longstanding cultural rivalry between the two sides of the city, a conflict which may stem from historical conflicts in the area. In 1836, the City of Cleveland existed only on the east side of the river. The west side was a different city entirely: Ohio City. While the two would go on to merge in the 1850s, at the time they were distinct cities, which led them into conflict with one another.
The notable climax of the competition between these two cities was the Columbus St. Bridge War of 1836. The Columbus St. Bridge was built over the Cuyahoga River to provide a more direct route from the nearby Medina & Wooster turnpike into Cleveland. [6] Ohio City residents resented this bridge because it bypassed their market district while providing a funnel for resources to enter Cleveland, which was a far more prosperous city than Ohio City already. Previously, in order to enter Cleveland from the west, it was most convenient to pass through Ohio City to do so, but the construction of the Columbus St. was accompanied by the destruction of another bridge which had linked Ohio City to Cleveland more directly.
In retaliation to the construction of the bridge, a mob of angry Ohio City residents stormed the bridge carrying a plethora of weapons, intent on destroying the bridge in protest. Cleveland residents, led by the mayor, met Ohio City with a retaliatory force, and a riot ensued. The county sheriff resolved the conflict, and the cities agreed to build multiple bridges over the river. Though Cleveland would later annex Ohio City, the echoes of this competition have shaped the cultural divide of the city’s sides in the ensuing centuries.
Works Cited
1 “ArcelorMittal Cleveland Halts Steel Operations, Leaving 250 Workers to Maintain Plant - Cleveland.Com.” n.d. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://www.cleveland.com/business/2009/03/arcelormittal_cleveland_closes.html.
2 “ArcelorMittal Cleveland Makes Steel, Here’s How They Do It - Cleveland.Com.” n.d. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.cleveland.com/business/2016/10/arcelormittal_cleveland_makes.html.
3 “ArcelorMittal Completes Sale of ArcelorMittal USA to Cleveland-Cliffs | ArcelorMittal.” 2020. December 9, 2020. https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/media/press-releases/arcelormittal-completes-sale-of-arcelormittal-usa-to-cleveland-cliffs/.
4 Brant, George. 2025. Rust A Story of Steel and Grit (Draft 5.0).
5 cleveland.com, dir. 2025. Drone Tour of Cleveland’s Massive Industrial Valley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMUdQdMHNS0.
6 “COLUMBUS STREET BRIDGE | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University.” 2019. November 18, 2019. https://case.edu/ech/articles/c/columbus-street-bridge.
7 “CUYAHOGA VALLEY NEIGHBORHOOD | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University.” 2022. March 12, 2022. https://case.edu/ech/articles/c/cuyahoga-valley-neighborhood.
8 Eliese Colette Goldbach. 2020. RUST a Memoir of Steel and Grit. First edition. Flatiron Books.
9 “Erie Canal - Commercial Artery, National Symbol | Britannica.” 2025. March 21, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Erie-Canal.
10 “Https://Web.Archive.Org/Web/20131123141334/Http://Www.Steelstrong100.Com/Who-We-Were/.” n.d. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20131123141334/http://www.steelstrong100.com/Who-we-were/.
11 “Industrial River Valley Historical Marker.” n.d. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=147878.
12 “Industrial Valley.” n.d. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://planning.clevelandohio.gov/cwp/districts.php?dt=dist3&dn=ind.
13 “INDUSTRY | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University.” 2018. May 11, 2018. https://case.edu/ech/articles/i/industry.
14 “IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY.” n.d. https://case.edu/ech/articles/i/iron-and-steel-industry#:~:text=Location%20has%20been%20Cleveland's%20potent,for%20iron%20ore%20and%20coal.
15 Kenward, LLoyd. 1987. “The Decline of the US Steel Industry: Why Competitiveness Fell against Foreign Steelmakers.” Finance & Development 24 (004). https://doi.org/10.5089/9781616353711.022.A009.
16 “LABOR | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University.” 2022. July 20, 2022. https://case.edu/ech/articles/l/labor.
17 “NEIGHBORHOOD PROGRESS INC. | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History | Case Western Reserve University.” 2019. September 10, 2019. https://case.edu/ech/articles/n/neighborhood-progress-inc.
18 “Reframing the ‘Rust Belt’ Narrative through the Humanities.” n.d. Ideastream Public Media. Accessed April 5, 2025. https://www.ideastream.org/show/sound-of-ideas/2025-04-03/reframing-the-rust-belt-narrative-through-the-humanities.
19 Rich’s Roads and Rails, dir. 2020. Cleveland, Ohio Industrial Valley Street Tour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWvy4Oczn-E.
20 Schweitzer, Mark E. n.d. “Rust and Renewal: A Cleveland Retrospective.” Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.clevelandfed.org/regional-analysis/cleveland-retrospective.
21 “Soo Locks.” n.d. Great Lakes and Ohio River Division. Accessed April 24, 2025. https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/Article/3641904/soo-locks/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lrd.usace.army.mil%2FMissions%2FProjects%2FDisplay%2FArticle%2F3641904%2Fsoo-locks%2F.
22 Tighe, J. Rosie, and Stephanie Ryberg-Webster. 2019. Legacy Cities: Continuity and Change amid Decline and Revival. PIttsburgh, UNITED STATES: University of Pittsburgh Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/oberlin/detail.action?docID=5789179.
23 “Which Groups Suffer Most in the Labor Market During Recessions?” n.d. NBER. Accessed March 7, 2025. https://www.nber.org/digest/jul12/which-groups-suffer-most-labor-market-during-recessions.
24 Writer, Staff. n.d. “Obama to Visit Cleveland Steelmaking Company on Thursday.” Columbus CEO. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.columbusceo.com/story/business/2013/11/13/obama-to-visit-cleveland-steelmaking/22892825007/.