Exploring Our Industrial Heritage – The Illinois River Valley (Part I)
Glaciers and Concrete
West of Chicago, via a 90-minute car ride, lies Starved Rock State Park and some of America’s most deep-rooted industrial heritage. As I stood looking-out over the concrete railing at the visitor center at Starved Rock State Park in Oglesby, Illinois, I couldn’t help but see the broad sweeping scope of our industrial united states. The overlook at the state park stands about 100 feet above the Illinois river below. Within eyesight is the entire Illinois River Valley which includes the Starved Rock power generating lock and dam and an array of historic industrial sites still in operation.
As I dug deeper in my research, I found that the Illinois River Valley, on the banks of the Illinois river between Ottawa and LaSalle holds some interesting industrial history, complements of Ice Age glacier deposits. It all started over 10,000 years ago when massive glaciers blanketed the entire Midwest and the glaciers moved and melted and refroze and melted again. This period is called the pre-Illinoian period. As luck would have it, the glaciers that covered what is now known as the state of Illinois, transported and deposited millions of tons of valuable mineral resources. This includes deposits of coal, fluorite, lead, zinc, dolomite, limestone, sand, gravel, silica and clay.
More specifically, the glacier deposits in the Illinois river valley happen to contain many of the minerals required to produce concrete. The recipe for concrete includes Portland cement (limestone, silica), aggregates (sand and gravel) and coal (used as heat to dry and sinter the concrete materials during processing).
The first company to recognize the opportunity to produce Portland cement at this site on the Illinois river was a company called German-American Portland Cement Works. Their product was sold under the brand name of “Owl Cement” and hence high quality Portland cement has been manufactured at this site since 1897.
When the United States entered WW I in April 1917, the German-American Portland Cement Works was taken over by the U.S. Alien Property Custodian and production continued under the name of LaSalle Portland Cement Company.
The plant eventually fell under the ownership of the Alpha Cement Company and in 1970 management announced that they were to begin the process of shutting down production and permanently ceasing all operations at this facility. Step by step, starting first with the quarry, then the kiln, grinding mills, and eventually shipping, all phases of Portland cement production were permanently shut down. By fall, Alpha Cement had shipped its last load of cement and officially closed the plant in November 1970.
But in 1972 a joint venture between Centex Corporation
and the Pritzker family of Chicago was formed and this new partnership purchased the Alpha Portland Cement Company plant. In 1973 the partnership, now known as Illinois Cement Company, built a new 1,125 ton/day production plant. The plant conversion included a modern, state-of-the-art “dry process” system, which included a 200-foot preheat tower. The energy efficiency and environmental performance of “dry process” manufacturing technology was far superior to the older, “wet process” of cement manufacturing that is still being utilized in the U.S. today.
1999 began a process of dramatic upgrades to the facility in LaSalle. A new 4,000 horsepower cement finish mill was commissioned on schedule in June 1999 of that year and production capabilities were dramatically enhanced. The $20 million project also led to significant quality improvements and consistency. The overall project was successfully commissioned at the end of 2006. The transformation of the production facility was complete. Energy efficiency was vastly improved, production capability increased to 1,000,000 tons per year of consistent high-quality product.
Additionally, other manufacturers such as Sika, LaFarge Aggregates, Utica Quarry and Ladzinski Cement Finishing Company continue various types of concrete operations in the local region. The Starved Rock Dam, Lock and Hydro-Electric Plant are extremely impressive too, so be sure to read Part II of this series about the Illinois River Valley and learn more about the history of this incredible area!
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