Ohio Rust Belt

Railroad signals with caged ladders next to AK Steel, Middletown.

Sunrise over AK Steel (formerly Armco Steel) in Middletown, OH.

The coke works at AK Steel in Middletown.

AK's blast furnace in Middletown was one of five left in Ohio at the time of this photo. The others were in Warren, Cleveland, Mingo Junction, and Lorain.

One of the "sheds" at AK's Middletown works - perhaps part of a rolling mill.

Another part of the sprawling AK steel complex.

Armco Employees Independent Federation labor union pickets AK Steel in 2006 in response to a worker lockout. The Rust Belt region has been plagued by management-labor disputes from the beginning of industrialization. As the 21st Century progressed, management clearly had the upper hand, and the influence and membership of organized labor has been sharply reduced.

AK Steel at the break of day.

Ford transmission factory in Sharonville.

A Midwestern lanape in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cincinnati features several old factories, both operating and idle, like the Lunkenheimer valve factory pictured here.

Loading Hoppers at the Lunkenheimer factory in Cincinnati.

A Cincinnati neighborhood.

Grain silos behind Cincinnati's huge rail yard.

A small portion of the Proctor & Gamble plant in St. Bernard, OH.

They don't build factories like this anymore - P&G's Ivory Soap factory in St. Bernard, OH.

Near downtown Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Bulk Terminals on the Ohio River.

Coal stockpiles and silos at Cincinnati Bulk Terminals facility.

This large masonry structure is part of U.S. Playing Card Company's factory in Norwood, Ohio.

The old Stearns and Foster mattress and textile factory in Cincinnati. Bedding materials ceased to be manufactured there in the 1990s, and textile production ended in the 2000's.

Hamilton, Ohio in Butler County is a classic Rust Belt town. Mosler Safe once operated a large manufacturing plant in the city.

The former Champion Papers mill along the Miami River in Hamilton was operated by Smart Paper at the time of this photograph. The plant closed a little over a year later. At one time 23 paper companies operated along the Miami River from Dayton to Cincinnati.

A vintage industrial plant in Hamilton that was still being used by Mohawk Paper when I took this picture. It closed down for good in 2012 after 100 plus years of operation. On the last day of production an employee who had worked there for 33 years said, "Don t know what New York s thinking, but they re shutting down a good mill." Another employee lamented the loss of his $21 per hour job, and stated, "A lot of us will have a hard time getting a job."

The neighborhood around the Mohawk paper mill. The plant was originally run by Beckett Paper, and later by Hamermill.

Morning in Hamilton, Ohio.

Detail of buildings that once composed the Niles Tool Works in Hamilton.

Part of the Niles Tool Works being demolished in 2010. It's a shame to have these fine old industrial buildings decline into "brownfield" status.

Dayton once featured the factories of National Cash Register, Frigidaire, General Motors, and Delphi. And after 125 years of being based in Dayton, in 2009 National Cash Register announced it would be moving its corporate headquarters to Duluth, Georgia. However, their manufacturing operations had already been gone for years.

The Delphi chassis factory on Home Avenue in Dayton had just closed days before I took this photo.

The neighborhood around the idled Delphi plant.

Dayton West Side homes.

This industrial district is just east of downtown Dayton. In the background are the ruins of the old Frigidaire plant.

Ruins of the Frigidaire appliance factory in Dayton. This particular plant once made washers, dryers, and dishwashers.

Historic homes in Dayton's East Side.

Tanks behind the Hewitt Soap Company's plant in Dayton. Hewitt once employed 400 employees, but parent company Bradford Soap International closed the plant that dated back to 1897 in 2005.

The Industrial Heartland is peppered with cereal and grain processing plants, such as this Cargill facility in Dayton.

This GM factory in the Dayton suburb of Moraine ceased operations about two weeks before I snapped this picture. The plant was built in 1951, and was the last GM factory in a city that was once home to many GM plants (including Frigidaire).

The closure of the GM Moraine plant was so recent that rail cars that shipped the factory's autombiles to market are still sitting in the rail yard.

The Xenia Foundry and Machine Co. was founded in 1920, and the family run operation specializing in gray and ductile iron castings was still in business in 2009.