From Pig Iron To Iron Pigs

Image credit: Composite image by Cujo359 (See Note)

Every once in a while, I travel back to the area where I grew up - the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania. When I was growing up here, it was an industrial center. There was a Mack truck plant and a Western Electric plant in Allentown, and a huge steel mill in Bethlehem. Bethlehem Steel was the second-largest steel manufacturer in the world back then. Mack moved their plant south many years ago, and thanks to the incompetence of its management and the intransigence of its unions, the Bethlehem Steel plant is long abandoned.

In those days, the huge blast furnaces that sat along the Lehigh River, produced pig iron from the raw ore shipped in from all over the country. These furnaces, tended by hundreds of steelworkers, plant managers, and engineers, ran around the clock, stopping only for maintenance. They were hot, noisy, and dirty machines, but they produced a vital product in what was, at the time they were built, the most modern and efficient way. Unfortunately, after the Second World War the world's steel industry was largely destroyed outside of the U.S. Bethlehem and other U.S. steel companies became lazy and arrogant, refusing to invest in new technologies. When foreign countries like Japan and Korea rebuilt their steel industries, they used more modern equipment in them, and they gradually learned to make steel better and more cheaply than their American counterparts. By the late 1970s, Bethlehem Steel and its American competitors were a shadow of their former selves. The Wikipedia article on Bethlehem Steel contains a good history of its rise and fall. In addition, a book entitled Crisis In Bethlehem, by John Strohmeyer, is an excellent chronicle of this sad time in our industrial past.

What brought all this to mind was a visit I paid the other day to the new Lehigh Valley Stadium, which will be the home stadium for the Iron Pigs, the Philadelphia Phillies' AAA minor league team. Anyone who has looked into the recent history of minor league baseball can tell you that it is nearly as difficult for a city to hold onto a minor league team as it is a major league one:

We here in Emmaus and the rest of the Lehigh Valley are the direct beneficiaries of Ottawa's loss of the Lynx. Still, it should sadden any fan to know that AAA baseball no longer will be played in Canada starting next year.

AAA baseball, and International league ball in particular, has a proud history in Canada that should not have ended the way it did. Canadian teams have won a total of 18 AAA titles.

Eulogy: AAA ball in Canada

Like many minor league baseball teams, the Iron Pigs, formerly the Lynx, got a better offer, moved, and changed their name. Lehigh County, with the help of various grants, built a beautiful new stadium with a bigscreen TV, sky boxes, and other modern features for the team to lure them here. Apparently, Ottawa decided it couldn't compete. What's especially interesting is where one of those grants came from:

Minor league baseball will return to the City of Allentown Pa. in 2008, thanks in part to a grant from EPA's Revolving Loan Fund (RLF). The Philadelphia Phillies will move their Triple A team (just a notch below the majors) to a new stadium being built on the site of a former electronics plant. The 7,000-seat stadium, located between American Parkway and Union Boulevard in East Allentown, is expected to cost $34.3 million.

We see this project as a hub around which economic development will occur. It's a perfect re-use for a former industrial property because we're taking a good portion of land and turning it into greenspace, said Glenn Solt, Manager of Capitol Projects for Lehigh County.

...

The site was originally developed in the 1940s and operated by Western Electric, AT&T Microelectronics, Lucent Technologies and Agere systems until the facility was closed in 2003. The site was used for the manufacture of electronic components such as circuit boards and computer chips. The buildings were demolished in 2004.

A Phase I environmental assessment was completed in 2005 and subsequent Phase II assessment work was completed in early 2006. A subsurface soil investigation noted an approximately 30,000-square-foot area that contained some buried electronic parts and concentrations of chlorinated solvents, mercury, nickel and silver in the soil.

Brownfield of Dreams Becoming Allentown's Reality

Silver and nickel are typically found in circuit board solder, solvents are used to clean circuit boards and integrated circuits. All of this was buried beneath the ground where Lehigh Valley Stadium, which is now called Coca Cola Park thanks to an advertising contract, now stands.

The source of these contaminants is another example of the decline of this area's industrial base. The stadium is next door to, and on top of, what remains of the old Western Electric plant, which was once a part of AT & T, the telephone monopoly. Among other things, early research into semiconductor manufacturing was done there:

But the transistor was still a long way from becoming the mass-produced gizmo that would reshape—or create—huge industries, including radio, television, microelectronics, and aerospace. More than a decade of development—involving silicon purification, crystal growing, and the diffusion of chemical agents called dopants into semiconductors—was required before transistors could begin to assume the forms they are found in today. Much of that work took place not at Bell Labs but at two Western Electric plants in Pennsylvania, in Allentown and nearby Reading, where engineers developed the precision manufacturing processes and techniques needed to mass-produce transistors. The clean room, used today in almost every aspect of semiconductor manufacturing, was born and raised in Allentown.

The End of AT&T

Later, this plant produced the laser diodes that constituted the long links in the information superhighway. It employed hundreds of engineers, technicians, accountants, and other professionals, most of whom were well paid. When we drove past what was left of this facility on Monday, it was sporting the logo of LSI Corporation, and it had a parking lot that was almost empty. Much like the Bethlehem Steel plant, it is now too antiquated for most applications.

In a sense, these giant industries have been replaced by a small niche industry, albeit one that the local governments were happy to put up $34 million to obtain. What economic benefit is likely to accrue? The EPA estimates:

When the stadium opens in April 2008, it will have 30 full-time employees, as well as providing numerous part-time service jobs. It will also require trash hauling, food, cleaning services, advertising and printing in addition to other goods and services which will generate jobs and economic development in the area.

Brownfield of Dreams Becoming Allentown's Reality

Thirty jobs, mostly low-paid, replace thousands of high-paying jobs. This is the transition much of America is undergoing. Personally, I'd rather have the blast furnaces.

Note about the image: This is a composite of images from the Bethlehem Steel online site, and the Iron Pigs' stadium page.

UPDATE: There's no new content, but I've made several edits to clarify things. I also fixed the link to an explanation of laser diodes.

UPDATE (Mar. 24): If you're having trouble finding the Iron Pigs' schedule, I offer some advice on the subject.

Afterword (Aug., 2011): For those who landed here because they asked the online question "What is an iron pig?", or words to that effect, I think the most common answer is "a motorcycle police officer". An obscure minor league baseball team named after a failed American industrial sector is probably the second definition.

Glad I could help.