Man, on a dark night, that hot slag was a hell of a show! If you missed it because you were born too late, don't fret. The down side was the filth. And man was it filthy. Houses, cars, everything was covered. The air was smoggy. Oftentimes heavy to breathe. Everyone worked and made a good wage, but those were tough and dangerous jobs! Done by people many of which never expected to own homes or experience real economic prosperity. Today's Pittsburgh has far more beauty. Pittsburgher's should take immense pride in what they are and where it all came from. A city truly forged of tough stock!
I was/am a 4th generation steel worker. Your comment is very well written. The people in fact expected to own homes, and the means to that end were the mills. Yes, it was dirty, but the dust raining down was dollars. When the skies cleared, and the ever present noise stopped in the early 80's, many of the homes that were bought from the blood and sweat of hardened men and women were boarded up. Then came the tears. 100 years of industry was gone, just like the dust it produced in the wind. Pittsburgh should be proud of itself, but the city that you see today is simply a facade of the grit, determination, and the love of family that was once ingrained in it's populace.
@@matthewh117 Tough and dangerous jobs worked by men** I think it's high time we stop changing history to both be oppressive to women by tyrannical husbands, and an example of women working hard and dangerous jobs for captains of industry. The truth is that these companies used the male urge to provide and protect their families as a resource for hard and dangerous labor. Women did work very hard in the past, which is why I have a problem with modern conservatives supporting "Tradwife" (traditional housewife) imagery. Baking sourdough bread and hosting ice cream socials is a phenomenon of a couple decades. 1950s to 1970s. Propoganda created the idea of "women's liberation" from their homes and children, and into factories and shops. Downward pressure on wages continues to this day because of the doubling of the labor pool. Minimum wage in 1965 was $1.60. If I was paid $1.60 in 6 quarters and a dime from 1964 for every hour I worked, I would be making $38 per hour. So minimum wage adjusted for inflation is 1/5th of what it was.
I learned that the reason Pittsburgh has such a large number of hospitals was due to the rampant lung disease from the smog. Makes me glad I was born as the mills closed! 😬
@@misspat7555 Not true. From 1960 until they closed, the pollution was never as bad as the pundits say it was. Until the advent of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, known as UPMC, communities like Homestead and Braddock had their own hospitals. Once UPMC began to expand, the folks that ran Allegheny General Hospital on the North side knew that they had to expand or die. Today we have world-class health care, and pollution, what little there is of it, is not a factor in the region's healthcare. But, Google a picture of Forbes Field during the 1960 World Series, and yes, it was bad.
I was born in ‘57 and lived in the Pittsburgh area. I can remember playing outside and actually “tasting” the smoke..the grit would be in my teeth, on my face and in my hair. I would scratch my scalp and it would get in my fingernails. I remember the nickname for Pittsburgh was “The Smokey City.” The slag dumping was awesome to see but I wouldn’t want to live like that again. It wasn’t Mayor Murphy who changed Pittsburgh, it was Mayor David L. Lawrence then when my cousin Richard Caliguiri was voted in office of the Mayor, he continued the project. . On the Pittsburgh Magazine, before he died, he was called “The Renaissance Man.” Very good video!
@@sandyaw3057 Edinburgh was once called Old Reeky. I spent a year in England when they still heated with coal. The whole UK was “reeky”. It smells different now.
I grew up in west PA. Near our town, there were a bunch of slag dumps throughout the woods. No one ever told us not to go back there and it was near a railroad. There were tons of old building foundations back there. We used to ride 4 wheelers, build mtb trails, do airsoft, shoot things, build huts, etc. Good times.
Summerset at Frick Park“ sounds so much better than “Expensive-ass McMansions-upon-Slag Dumps“. Also, when we were kids, we never knew it as “9 Mile Run“, it was “Shit Creek“ because of all the toxic waste we were walking through
This reminds me of the transformation of ‘The Valley of Ashes’ on Long Island in New York, much of which has become Flushing Meadows Park for decades now!
Great stuff, grew up 5 mins from century 3 mall and always thought the slag mountain was so interesting while driving by, even more interesting how trees can actually grow out of it. I actually worked on plenty of those houses down in Squirrel Hill on the old dump as well. Great stuff man.
I grew up far enough from Pittsburgh that I didn't get to go to the City all that often. I visited Century 3 a handful of times, and I always wondered why the area around the mall looked like a moonscape. Now I know why.
Your narrative style has been evolving and just keeps getting better and better! Very interesting and professional. Great videos, can't wait to see what you produce next!
I love reading dale Carnegie The reading aloud parts are especially captivating I think you may benefit from creasing your reading material and reading it from your cupped hand with some more light hand gesture and audience/cameras engagement The end very professional
There was a type of red slag with a high iron content, that resulted from burning low grade coal. It was called "red dog". Lots of rural roads in Western PA used to be surfaced with it.
I remember my grandmother talking about red dog, but she couldn't explain to me what it was--so I thank you for the explanation. I remember her complaining that the city came and paved the alley behind her house with red dog, and it killed her hedges. (Is "paved" the right word here? Maybe I should've said "covered" instead.)
If I could offer some constructive criticism. Instead of stopping to read from a script, just do a voiceover while walking the trail. I really enjoyed this very good and informative video.
Yeah but then it loses all the charm- the understated humor is what makes this dude & his vids so awesome- these were DUMB ideas by immoral people yet GOD makes good things grow even out of sh*t... so I hope he doesn't change a thing about his presentations or content which is the reason you are a YT critic writing comments & he is a yt creator ignoring all our comments!
It is slag dump. Slag used to sold at lumber yards. My dad was a bricklayer. He would use slad as backfill. Once it was compressed it was as hard as rock, but you could run pipe threw it, because it is corrosive.
My father and I just happened to see one of the last slag dumps at the Century III site. I think we were going to a Murphy's Mart when we saw them dumping. I guess it had become a fairly rare event at the time as there was a group of people in the parking lot watching the dump. We were probably about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from away and everyone commented on how we could feel the heat radiating from the molten slag oozing down the hill. I was about 4 years of age at the time. In my teens, me and a few friends climbed the slag pile and spray painted the name of our garage band on the side (Zephyr). We could see that for many years before the started hauling off the slag for the construction of the mall. Thanks for the short documentary and bringing back some cool memories!
so what you are saying is that first the b*stards poison the air water & land with their toxic dumping & never warn people of the hazards of their new spectator sport AND THEN they screw your garage band out of FREE ADVERTIZING... that is surely a sociopathic level of a lack of empathy for a homie with certainty... I feel for you & your garage band zephr bcuz I also always thought zepplin was a crappy name that needed a rewrire badly!
I have lived around the city for my entire 52 (almost 53) years while I do remember the massive steel mills that used to be all around the rivers I don't remember the dumping of the slag. I do however know about some of the mountains created in the process. 5:55 Yes, my father told me of the times he watched the slag being dumped.
Solar… the solar company comes along and says “we want to lease your land for a huge amount!” The farmer said “I’m rich!!”. the solar company then builds this huge solar power system on his land.. then they file for bankruptcy, selling to a new company who will pay the farmer a quarter of the original contract… Neat trick, eh?
John Kane painted the valley before it was a dump. Within a mile of it a zebra swallowtail was collected so there may well have been pawpaw trees growing there in the past.
I grew up in Duquesne , and if you wanted to see White snow you better have gone outside within the first hours after it stopped . It developed a black sooty crust remarkably fast !
I remember once stepping on a pile of what I thought was dirt, only to have my foot go through it all the way to the ground. It was actually snow. And this happened in June.
I'm from a little outside of Pittsburgh. I didn't really know slag dumps. The town close to where I grew up had a lot of slate dumps which was all the rocks they mined from the coal mines that they had no use for. A lot of kids/teenagers use to ride their bikes, dirt bikes and quads on them.
I think we had the same childhood! Grandpap used to take me up there all of the time through the cemetery gate, before the golf course was a thing. Warned me about "quicksand" and showed me what sassafras was. I loved climbing the mounds. Makes sense why there were so many different types of tractors, now!
I really like your videos, thank you! I grew up going to Children's Palace, in the shadow of the slag heap, part of which became Century III. I was fascinated by that heap, the graffiti, and history that created it. I like how you summarize Pittsburgh so well at the end. It reminds me of the local rails-to-trails, also reminders of the time we were moving so much coal to the steel mills. Now they are things of beauty, too!
I find it funny that you use the video from bethlehem steel to show that, not only have I seen that video but I'm actually a steel hauler and been to Bethlehem steel a few times in Bethlehem Pennsylvania cool place
My grandfather worked in a coal mine owned by Bethlehem Steel from 1921 to 1956. He died from black lung in 1956. Bethlehem Steel screwed him over royally (and I'm not just talking about the black lung).
I’m not sure what Pittsburgh neighborhood my mother lived in, but as a 6 year old she would hop aboard the interurban streetcar with a nickel that the conductor always refused. This was in 1930.
When my father was a child, he used to ride the train for free between Morgantown, WV and Kingwood, WV all the time. He got to ride for free because he rode in the locomotive and fired the engine. He didn't ride the train to go anywhere in particular--he just found this fun to do. Can you imagine the liabilities if something like that happened today?
@@JRBWare1942 Gone are the days when a kid got a tour of the cockpit of an airliner. United would give a kid a brass pin that said CoPilot. Imagine the liability of giving a child something as dangerous as a pin.
@@MrAdamNTProtester Nowhere did I mention a street, a streetcar, or a conductor. Do you have a reading comprehension problem or something? Or are you just being a troll? And if you're being a troll, why? Looking at your channel, I think I would be inclined to be a viewer of yours--but if you insist on randomly trolling people, I can give you down votes as well.
We have similar flat top refuse piles here in the UP of Michigan near the big iron mines, waste material from the mines and smelting the ore into pellets. The entire south skyline of Ishpeming and Negaunee Michigan are dominated by these. They reach for miles and miles and miles.
From se pa, the culm bank in Shamokin is immense. Never knew about it, was there doing some refrigeration work. Shocked me as it's piled right next to the town.
I've been loving the topics you're covering! The slag dumps hit especially close to home, as I grew up in Pleasant Hills overlooking the mall and k-mart. I've walked with the dog on 9 mile trail a few times, but never knew it was a slag dump as well. And I never knew that neighborhood had such a confusing name lol. I also thought you were out in Somerset until you were showing the map.
I grew up in West Mifflin, and would visit my grandparents in North Braddock, frequently. My grandfather had access to a local cemetery, and behind there were towering slag dumps that you could see far across the river. I was so excited to go and climb on them. When I came home, I'd excitedly tell my mother I went to the slag dumps, but for some reason, the way it sounded, she thought I'd said "I went to Saigon!" She was deeply concerned that her little girl was a reincarnated fallen Vietnam veteran. 😂 I think the area has since become a golf course. Those little relics around West Mifflin and former Century III hold a special place in my memory, too. They always felt otherworldly, like giant mushroom sculptures juxtaposed against the modern industry, though in all reality, they paved the way. These days, I actually live very close to Nine Mile Run and Duck Hollow, and I work right across the river from the Edgar Thompson mill. Man-made, or not, I really do appreciate the park and trails. White-tail deer love it here. There are some lovely little embankments with trails where you can go right up to the water and admire the local wildlife. I often spot ducks, Canadian geese, and even herons. It's particularly gorgeous in late summer / early September when you can go down early in the morning and watch the mist rise off of the river. As a photographer, it's a delight. As a rockhound, though, I can confirm that the embankments and river beds consist almost entirely of slag. Most of it is pretty ordinary and gravel-like, but sometimes you can find glass slag, and it can have a pretty "oil spill" texture. I'd consider it collectable!
Thanks for keeping me up to date on just what in the world is going on down commercial, they've only just started playing with that stretch of land it seems then...
I remember when Century III mall was built. I smoked a lotta pot up on that slag dump. Tripped up there too. Rode dirtbikes and drank keggers all over them hills... But what I really miss is West View Park. I don't miss Pittsburgh, just West View Park.
I’ve been to Sandcastle (a waterpark in Pittsburgh, for those not from ‘round here), where the old Homestead steel mill was, and seen the slag pile it was built on top of. Wild to think about it being dumped there two or three generations ago! 🤯
I never even knew about the Gascola dump and I drive by that spot of land all the time. I always thought it was strange how there was such an open flat spot of land there that isn’t being used for anything. Now I know the story behind it.
I think most (if not all) of the slag there was removed. Someone came up with a process to extract minerals from the slag. It's been a long time since I've been near there so I might be misremembering. I think there was a large pile near the bus garage on Lott road that was gone last time I was there.
I always read the comments before I watch a video. Does anyone else remember the smell. We used to call them fart rock. You would get stuck behind a dump truck on East Carson Street, With a streetcar beside you, And be stuck in traffic sitting next to a giant toilet bowl. Rotten eggs was often used to describe the smell of the trucks on Carson Street. Now to the video.
The hot metal bridge is called that because they used to dump hot slag right into the river. Gateway Clipper cruises even had a featured tour to go see it.
Pittsburgh has outlived its usefulness. I cringe every time one of the talking heads on local TV calls it the "Steel City". There are no steel mills within the city limits. The three remaining US Steel plants will be shut down soon. There are a lot of people who want any vestiges of the former industries gone so that rainbows and unicorns can freely roam the streets like the deer currently do. When industry died here our leaders embraced "eds and meds", and the University of Pittsburgh became the largest employer, and UPMC became the largest industry. It's subsistence for a city and county that are running out of borrowed time.
I know what you're talking about. Morgantown, WV followed the same path after the coal mines shut down. When that happened, the local radio stations started referring to Morgantown as "the University City." Then Mylan Pharmaceuticals shut down, and now West Virginia University has begun slashing programs left and right because it's in a race to become the first land-grant university to go out of business. When it does, Morgantown will shrivel up and blow away. I hope Pittsburgh can avoid that fate.
4:25 i know its not important, but fun fact. that was a smaller normal walmart, it was replaced when they built the walmart super center right next door
2004 I think the year was. I worked for a construction company. That leveled a slag dump off near the Squirrle Hill exit. By Wendys and where Rosedale Tech. used to be. The dump was leveled off and the slopes capped with 2-3 foot of clay. Houses were built on the old slag. There was another dump next to it at Duck Hollow. Whether or not it was leveled or not I do not know. There was chatter about it back in 2004. I remember when we started the job we had to power wash the excavator. Because "Fast Eddie" Rendell was coming out for a photo-op.
Used to live in the area in the 80s and been to Century III plenty of times. As a kid I always thought the slag dumps were (natural) cliffs. I haven't been back to the area much but makes me wonder about some of the other hills around the old mill areas along the Mon.
Right now I’m living VERY close to the remains of Century III and near the Railroad that runs scrap. Sometimes you can hear it at night the Train going past the Trailer Park. I do remember in 8th Grade Algebra class the Slag going down in the afternoon late 70’s I believe. I think it all ended in 1978. I could be wrong.
OK first off they’re not mountains, they are slag heaps. I have often heard people refer to Pittsburgh as mountainous. The fountain at point State Park is only 700 feet or so above sea level. Mount Washington, was originally Coal Hill. Although we have a few communities named mount something or other, our highest elevation is only slightly above 1000 feet.
Imagine after the next great flood, and all traces of human activity are gone. Future geologists will find the slag dumps and theorize how they were formed.
Near Morgantown, WV, there's a lake called Cheat Lake. Criminals used to dump stolen cars in a part of the lake called the backwaters. I had known that fact for at least a decade before the police "discovered" it, and it was in the local newspaper. I think the reality was that the police didn't want to know about it, but something happened there that forced them to investigate and tell the truth to the public.
We always referred to the slag mountains around Century III Mall as the Emyn Muil, named after the craggy rocks in Middle Earth...I guess not an inapt comparison, though perhaps naming them after the Ash Mountains in the north of Mordor would've been better. []
What a weird thing to do, at the current rate of depletion of solar cells Pittsburgh doesn't have enough daylight time or average sunshine days to be even remotely profitable. Sounds like green washing 😅
Browns Dump urban legend has it is or was allegedly the largest man made mountain in the world. We'd watch the slagged dumped from Haine's Supermarket. And walking on Century III Mall property before the mall was built was like walking on the moon. Some of the rocks were very light and others heavy like lead.
Man, on a dark night, that hot slag was a hell of a show! If you missed it because you were born too late, don't fret. The down side was the filth. And man was it filthy. Houses, cars, everything was covered. The air was smoggy. Oftentimes heavy to breathe. Everyone worked and made a good wage, but those were tough and dangerous jobs! Done by people many of which never expected to own homes or experience real economic prosperity. Today's Pittsburgh has far more beauty. Pittsburgher's should take immense pride in what they are and where it all came from. A city truly forged of tough stock!
I was/am a 4th generation steel worker. Your comment is very well written. The people in fact expected to own homes, and the means to that end were the mills.
Yes, it was dirty, but the dust raining down was dollars. When the skies cleared, and the ever present noise stopped in the early 80's, many of the homes that were bought from the blood and sweat of hardened men and women were boarded up.
Then came the tears. 100 years of industry was gone, just like the dust it produced in the wind. Pittsburgh should be proud of itself, but the city that you see today is simply a facade of the grit, determination, and the love of family that was once ingrained in it's populace.
@@matthewh117 Tough and dangerous jobs worked by men**
I think it's high time we stop changing history to both be oppressive to women by tyrannical husbands, and an example of women working hard and dangerous jobs for captains of industry.
The truth is that these companies used the male urge to provide and protect their families as a resource for hard and dangerous labor.
Women did work very hard in the past, which is why I have a problem with modern conservatives supporting "Tradwife" (traditional housewife) imagery.
Baking sourdough bread and hosting ice cream socials is a phenomenon of a couple decades. 1950s to 1970s.
Propoganda created the idea of "women's liberation" from their homes and children, and into factories and shops.
Downward pressure on wages continues to this day because of the doubling of the labor pool.
Minimum wage in 1965 was $1.60.
If I was paid $1.60 in 6 quarters and a dime from 1964 for every hour I worked, I would be making $38 per hour.
So minimum wage adjusted for inflation is 1/5th of what it was.
@SubvertTheState Agree with you. In the decade of the 40's, women worked in these same factories as their men went to war. Thank you.
I learned that the reason Pittsburgh has such a large number of hospitals was due to the rampant lung disease from the smog. Makes me glad I was born as the mills closed! 😬
@@misspat7555 Not true. From 1960 until they closed, the pollution was never as bad as the pundits say it was. Until the advent of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, known as UPMC, communities like Homestead and Braddock had their own hospitals. Once UPMC began to expand, the folks that ran Allegheny General Hospital on the North side knew that they had to expand or die. Today we have world-class health care, and pollution, what little there is of it, is not a factor in the region's healthcare.
But, Google a picture of Forbes Field during the 1960 World Series, and yes, it was bad.
I was born in ‘57 and lived in the Pittsburgh area. I can remember playing outside and actually “tasting” the smoke..the grit would be in my teeth, on my face and in my hair. I would scratch my scalp and it would get in my fingernails. I remember the nickname for Pittsburgh was “The Smokey City.” The slag dumping was awesome to see but I wouldn’t want to live like that again.
It wasn’t Mayor Murphy who changed Pittsburgh, it was Mayor David L. Lawrence then when my cousin Richard Caliguiri was voted in office of the Mayor, he continued the project. . On the Pittsburgh Magazine, before he died, he was called “The Renaissance Man.”
Very good video!
@@sandyaw3057 Edinburgh was once called Old Reeky. I spent a year in England when they still heated with coal. The whole UK was “reeky”. It smells different now.
I grew up in west PA. Near our town, there were a bunch of slag dumps throughout the woods. No one ever told us not to go back there and it was near a railroad. There were tons of old building foundations back there. We used to ride 4 wheelers, build mtb trails, do airsoft, shoot things, build huts, etc. Good times.
Summerset at Frick Park“ sounds so much better than “Expensive-ass McMansions-upon-Slag Dumps“.
Also, when we were kids, we never knew it as “9 Mile Run“, it was “Shit Creek“ because of all the toxic waste we were walking through
This reminds me of the transformation of ‘The Valley of Ashes’ on Long Island in New York, much of which has become Flushing Meadows Park for decades now!
Now that name would be confused with a TV show.
I wouldn't want to go up there without a paddle.
All my homies love slag dumps
I'm gay too please
@NickIggler1969 fair enough
Homies homies homies
DIRTBIKES
Facts
Mom and Dad took us to watch the slag being dumped. It was so very pretty to see.
We would go to the soft serve ice cream stand on 51 and sit in there parking lot and have a hot fudge Sunday and watch slag dump that's Pittsburgh.
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@@BernardBouchard-qq9kq Century 3 Mall
Great stuff, grew up 5 mins from century 3 mall and always thought the slag mountain was so interesting while driving by, even more interesting how trees can actually grow out of it. I actually worked on plenty of those houses down in Squirrel Hill on the old dump as well. Great stuff man.
I grew up far enough from Pittsburgh that I didn't get to go to the City all that often. I visited Century 3 a handful of times, and I always wondered why the area around the mall looked like a moonscape. Now I know why.
Your narrative style has been evolving and just keeps getting better and better! Very interesting and professional. Great videos, can't wait to see what you produce next!
Thank you! I can feel myself getting a little better with each video
I love reading dale Carnegie
The reading aloud parts are especially captivating
I think you may benefit from creasing your reading material and reading it from your cupped hand with some more light hand gesture and audience/cameras engagement
The end very professional
I pass through some of these areas when I’m working, and am watching this from a hotel in Monroeville. Thank you for the educational history lesson.
There was a type of red slag with a high iron content, that resulted from burning low grade coal. It was called "red dog". Lots of rural roads in Western PA used to be surfaced with it.
In Elizabeth Twp.they have Warden mine one of the largest coal producers there are mountains of red dog.
I remember my grandmother talking about red dog, but she couldn't explain to me what it was--so I thank you for the explanation.
I remember her complaining that the city came and paved the alley behind her house with red dog, and it killed her hedges. (Is "paved" the right word here? Maybe I should've said "covered" instead.)
Red dog and crush n run
If I could offer some constructive criticism. Instead of stopping to read from a script, just do a voiceover while walking the trail.
I really enjoyed this very good and informative video.
He will get better. Just think how good his videos are now at only 19 videos posted. ❤
I enjoy it, the youtube experience.
I like this idea
no i like the way he does it. makes it feel more personal like he’s talking directly to me and only me
Yeah but then it loses all the charm- the understated humor is what makes this dude & his vids so awesome- these were DUMB ideas by immoral people yet GOD makes good things grow even out of sh*t... so I hope he doesn't change a thing about his presentations or content which is the reason you are a YT critic writing comments & he is a yt creator ignoring all our comments!
Love this channel man, very informative and no fluff, just straight history and I’m here for it!
It is slag dump. Slag used to sold at lumber yards. My dad was a bricklayer.
He would use slad as backfill.
Once it was compressed it was as hard as rock, but you could run pipe threw it, because it is corrosive.
I'm from Washington, PA. I remember so many slag piles while growing up. Most are gone now. The big one from old Jessup Steel was off of Caldwell Ave
My father and I just happened to see one of the last slag dumps at the Century III site. I think we were going to a Murphy's Mart when we saw them dumping. I guess it had become a fairly rare event at the time as there was a group of people in the parking lot watching the dump. We were probably about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from away and everyone commented on how we could feel the heat radiating from the molten slag oozing down the hill. I was about 4 years of age at the time. In my teens, me and a few friends climbed the slag pile and spray painted the name of our garage band on the side (Zephyr). We could see that for many years before the started hauling off the slag for the construction of the mall.
Thanks for the short documentary and bringing back some cool memories!
so what you are saying is that first the b*stards poison the air water & land with their toxic dumping & never warn people of the hazards of their new spectator sport AND THEN they screw your garage band out of FREE ADVERTIZING... that is surely a sociopathic level of a lack of empathy for a homie with certainty... I feel for you & your garage band zephr bcuz I also always thought zepplin was a crappy name that needed a rewrire badly!
I have lived around the city for my entire 52 (almost 53) years while I do remember the massive steel mills that used to be all around the rivers I don't remember the dumping of the slag. I do however know about some of the mountains created in the process. 5:55 Yes, my father told me of the times he watched the slag being dumped.
In Youngstown the concert companies used all of our slag piles up. We used ours up and now the concrete doesn't hold up as well.
" When freed from sewage" Ahh, the good old days!
Things were so much better back when kids could swim around in poop water and get polio! 🙃🙃🙃
nothing says park to me more than toxic slag dumping & sewage removal
Real interesting local story told here! Such an interesting city and state
Solar… the solar company comes along and says “we want to lease your land for a huge amount!” The farmer said “I’m rich!!”. the solar company then builds this huge solar power system on his land.. then they file for bankruptcy, selling to a new company who will pay the farmer a quarter of the original contract…
Neat trick, eh?
Says the Maga Oil Company employee, willing to just steal the land
And it’s only sunny 29 days out of the year! Give or take a day.
John Kane painted the valley before it was a dump. Within a mile of it a zebra swallowtail was collected so there may well have been pawpaw trees growing there in the past.
And to think they just poured molten slag over all of it!
@@Noles.Explorescapitalism
Thank you for this informative video. I had no idea, but it all makes sense now.
I grew up in Duquesne , and if you wanted to see White snow you better have gone outside within the first hours after it stopped . It developed a black sooty crust remarkably fast !
I remember once stepping on a pile of what I thought was dirt, only to have my foot go through it all the way to the ground. It was actually snow. And this happened in June.
This is fascinating! Great job
I live in the Westside. When I dig in my back yard I find bits of slag all over. They look like shotgun slugs.
I'm from a little outside of Pittsburgh.
I didn't really know slag dumps. The town close to where I grew up had a lot of slate dumps which was all the rocks they mined from the coal mines that they had no use for.
A lot of kids/teenagers use to ride their bikes, dirt bikes and quads on them.
8:50 Hope you didn't break an axle or spring. That road is a nightmare now. Great video!
Just about did! I think there’s more pothole than road there
Yosemite National Park has the majestic “Firefall”. In West Mifflin we had the molten slag dump. Yoi and Double Yoi!!!
Dont forget watching the Braddock sunset on Grandview Golf Club on a slag dump
I think we had the same childhood! Grandpap used to take me up there all of the time through the cemetery gate, before the golf course was a thing. Warned me about "quicksand" and showed me what sassafras was. I loved climbing the mounds. Makes sense why there were so many different types of tractors, now!
I really like your videos, thank you! I grew up going to Children's Palace, in the shadow of the slag heap, part of which became Century III. I was fascinated by that heap, the graffiti, and history that created it. I like how you summarize Pittsburgh so well at the end. It reminds me of the local rails-to-trails, also reminders of the time we were moving so much coal to the steel mills. Now they are things of beauty, too!
I find it funny that you use the video from bethlehem steel to show that, not only have I seen that video but I'm actually a steel hauler and been to Bethlehem steel a few times in Bethlehem Pennsylvania cool place
My grandfather worked in a coal mine owned by Bethlehem Steel from 1921 to 1956. He died from black lung in 1956. Bethlehem Steel screwed him over royally (and I'm not just talking about the black lung).
Quite possibly the only cool thing in Bethlehem as well.
I’m not sure what Pittsburgh neighborhood my mother lived in, but as a 6 year old she would hop aboard the interurban streetcar with a nickel that the conductor always refused. This was in 1930.
When my father was a child, he used to ride the train for free between Morgantown, WV and Kingwood, WV all the time. He got to ride for free because he rode in the locomotive and fired the engine. He didn't ride the train to go anywhere in particular--he just found this fun to do.
Can you imagine the liabilities if something like that happened today?
your father was the conductor of a streetcar on your street? FREE RIDES = awesome!
@@JRBWare1942 Gone are the days when a kid got a tour of the cockpit of an airliner. United would give a kid a brass pin that said CoPilot. Imagine the liability of giving a child something as dangerous as a pin.
@@MrAdamNTProtester Nowhere did I mention a street, a streetcar, or a conductor. Do you have a reading comprehension problem or something? Or are you just being a troll? And if you're being a troll, why? Looking at your channel, I think I would be inclined to be a viewer of yours--but if you insist on randomly trolling people, I can give you down votes as well.
@@MrAdamNTProtester Nowhere did I mention a street, a streetcar, or a conductor. Do you have a reading comprehension problem or something?
Remember as a kid in the 60s sleeping outside on summer nights and watching the sky turn red when they would dump the ladles.
We have similar flat top refuse piles here in the UP of Michigan near the big iron mines, waste material from the mines and smelting the ore into pellets. The entire south skyline of Ishpeming and Negaunee Michigan are dominated by these. They reach for miles and miles and miles.
From se pa, the culm bank in Shamokin is immense. Never knew about it, was there doing some refrigeration work. Shocked me as it's piled right next to the town.
I've been loving the topics you're covering! The slag dumps hit especially close to home, as I grew up in Pleasant Hills overlooking the mall and k-mart. I've walked with the dog on 9 mile trail a few times, but never knew it was a slag dump as well. And I never knew that neighborhood had such a confusing name lol. I also thought you were out in Somerset until you were showing the map.
Playing on giant slag hills with all the boys. I'm glad this is a shared experience if you grew up around here.
I grew up in West Mifflin, and would visit my grandparents in North Braddock, frequently. My grandfather had access to a local cemetery, and behind there were towering slag dumps that you could see far across the river. I was so excited to go and climb on them. When I came home, I'd excitedly tell my mother I went to the slag dumps, but for some reason, the way it sounded, she thought I'd said "I went to Saigon!" She was deeply concerned that her little girl was a reincarnated fallen Vietnam veteran. 😂
I think the area has since become a golf course. Those little relics around West Mifflin and former Century III hold a special place in my memory, too. They always felt otherworldly, like giant mushroom sculptures juxtaposed against the modern industry, though in all reality, they paved the way.
These days, I actually live very close to Nine Mile Run and Duck Hollow, and I work right across the river from the Edgar Thompson mill. Man-made, or not, I really do appreciate the park and trails. White-tail deer love it here. There are some lovely little embankments with trails where you can go right up to the water and admire the local wildlife. I often spot ducks, Canadian geese, and even herons. It's particularly gorgeous in late summer / early September when you can go down early in the morning and watch the mist rise off of the river. As a photographer, it's a delight. As a rockhound, though, I can confirm that the embankments and river beds consist almost entirely of slag. Most of it is pretty ordinary and gravel-like, but sometimes you can find glass slag, and it can have a pretty "oil spill" texture. I'd consider it collectable!
Your voice is very pleasant and without a Pittsburgh accent.
Thanks for keeping me up to date on just what in the world is going on down commercial, they've only just started playing with that stretch of land it seems then...
I remember when Century III mall was built. I smoked a lotta pot up on that slag dump. Tripped up there too. Rode dirtbikes and drank keggers all over them hills... But what I really miss is West View Park. I don't miss Pittsburgh, just West View Park.
I’ve been to Sandcastle (a waterpark in Pittsburgh, for those not from ‘round here), where the old Homestead steel mill was, and seen the slag pile it was built on top of. Wild to think about it being dumped there two or three generations ago! 🤯
I never even knew about the Gascola dump and I drive by that spot of land all the time. I always thought it was strange how there was such an open flat spot of land there that isn’t being used for anything. Now I know the story behind it.
I think most (if not all) of the slag there was removed. Someone came up with a process to extract minerals from the slag. It's been a long time since I've been near there so I might be misremembering. I think there was a large pile near the bus garage on Lott road that was gone last time I was there.
super cool video. greetings from san francisco 👋 you've got a new subscriber!
Where did you get the historical satellite images from? I’d love to see more of the area
Penn State hosts a website called PennPilot, which has decades worth of airplane/satellite photography! It’s a fantastic resource
What poisonous metals are contained in these piles?
You mentioned J & L Steel (Jones & Laughlin) ! My dad worked at their Aliquippa mill for 35 years. 🙂
5 seconds in, thick as heck yinzer accent, this video is gonna rock
There’s some slag dumps by me in pa and I love them it’s a quite place to walk and ride dirt bikes
It was a little before my time, but the slag dumps by Century III would glow at night from the heat off the slag.
Great video. I had no idea how interesting it would be.
lmao that purple belt sign
This kind of thing exists in the east near Bethlehem and even Wilkes-Barre too
another certified Nolan™ classic
I do remember going to watch the slag dump at night. Our driveway was paved with slag.
Hello from Pittsburgh PA!
ask your parents or grandparents what getting slag in your knee feels like
I always read the comments before I watch a video. Does anyone else remember the smell. We used to call them fart rock. You would get stuck behind a dump truck on East Carson Street, With a streetcar beside you, And be stuck in traffic sitting next to a giant toilet bowl. Rotten eggs was often used to describe the smell of the trucks on Carson Street. Now to the video.
Lots of young Yunzers were conceived in and around those slag dumps.
great vid bro very interesting
Very informative video.
The hot metal bridge is called that because they used to dump hot slag right into the river. Gateway Clipper cruises even had a featured tour to go see it.
Pittsburgh has outlived its usefulness. I cringe every time one of the talking heads on local TV calls it the "Steel City". There are no steel mills within the city limits. The three remaining US Steel plants will be shut down soon. There are a lot of people who want any vestiges of the former industries gone so that rainbows and unicorns can freely roam the streets like the deer currently do.
When industry died here our leaders embraced "eds and meds", and the University of Pittsburgh became the largest employer, and UPMC became the largest industry.
It's subsistence for a city and county that are running out of borrowed time.
I know what you're talking about. Morgantown, WV followed the same path after the coal mines shut down. When that happened, the local radio stations started referring to Morgantown as "the University City." Then Mylan Pharmaceuticals shut down, and now West Virginia University has begun slashing programs left and right because it's in a race to become the first land-grant university to go out of business. When it does, Morgantown will shrivel up and blow away. I hope Pittsburgh can avoid that fate.
Very interesting video, you had me at fake mountains!
Great video, thank you for sharing!
Growing up in Fayette County we would play baseball on ash dump ball fields. Quite lively action😂
4:25 i know its not important, but fun fact. that was a smaller normal walmart, it was replaced when they built the walmart super center right next door
We used to ride our mini bikes there all day !
Go down Love Street and the trails were open ! ❤
2004 I think the year was. I worked for a construction company. That leveled a slag dump off near the Squirrle Hill exit. By Wendys and where Rosedale Tech. used to be. The dump was leveled off and the slopes capped with 2-3 foot of clay. Houses were built on the old slag. There was another dump next to it at Duck Hollow. Whether or not it was leveled or not I do not know. There was chatter about it back in 2004. I remember when we started the job we had to power wash the excavator. Because "Fast Eddie" Rendell was coming out for a photo-op.
Slag dumps are everywhere in the Pittsburgh/Ohio Valley.
Loved here almost 36yrs and never knew this
Used to live in the area in the 80s and been to Century III plenty of times. As a kid I always thought the slag dumps were (natural) cliffs. I haven't been back to the area much but makes me wonder about some of the other hills around the old mill areas along the Mon.
Where was 9:10, with that small cave shot?
Good video well put together content.
Right now I’m living VERY close to the remains of Century III and near the Railroad that runs scrap. Sometimes you can hear it at night the Train going past the Trailer Park.
I do remember in 8th Grade Algebra class the Slag going down in the afternoon late 70’s I believe.
I think it all ended in 1978.
I could be wrong.
Super interesting. Great video
I wonder if we see this at night still in Butler, Pa
I love your videos but you have to do something about the levels/mumbling.
Great video
You could make the same video about the coal mining waste.
True, and that’s all over the state
@@Noles.Explores If you do, don't forget to mention all the creeks with orange water in them.
OK first off they’re not mountains, they are slag heaps. I have often heard people refer to Pittsburgh as mountainous. The fountain at point State Park is only 700 feet or so above sea level. Mount Washington, was originally Coal Hill. Although we have a few communities named mount something or other, our highest elevation is only slightly above 1000 feet.
It may be A fake mountain but it looks nice and I'm glad it is greening and accessible.
Absolutely. As the years have passed it’s become evident that they’re much prettier as unused eyesores after all!
Imagine after the next great flood, and all traces of human activity are gone. Future geologists will find the slag dumps and theorize how they were formed.
9 mile run is also where criminals would dump stolen cars.
Near Morgantown, WV, there's a lake called Cheat Lake. Criminals used to dump stolen cars in a part of the lake called the backwaters. I had known that fact for at least a decade before the police "discovered" it, and it was in the local newspaper. I think the reality was that the police didn't want to know about it, but something happened there that forced them to investigate and tell the truth to the public.
That Pittsburgh iron defeated the Confederacy and Germany twice and Japan for good measure!
I mean it’s better than sparrows point in Baltimore. They used to dump slag into the Chesapeake bay and make themselves more land.
We always referred to the slag mountains around Century III Mall as the Emyn Muil, named after the craggy rocks in Middle Earth...I guess not an inapt comparison, though perhaps naming them after the Ash Mountains in the north of Mordor would've been better. []
Today I learned slag dumps are perfect places for malls
Interesting! Good video!
What a weird thing to do, at the current rate of depletion of solar cells Pittsburgh doesn't have enough daylight time or average sunshine days to be even remotely profitable. Sounds like green washing 😅
It’s just another way to steal money from the taxpayers
Yup, they usually just end up abandoned.
We played on the slag dumps as kids and then they went and built crap houses on them.
In WV lived around coal gob didn't get covered till 1990/93
Is the strobe the hobo on piano?
Remember riding the fly ash dumps on my Yamaha
Browns Dump urban legend has it is or was allegedly the largest man made mountain in the world. We'd watch the slagged dumped from Haine's Supermarket. And walking on Century III Mall property before the mall was built was like walking on the moon. Some of the rocks were very light and others heavy like lead.
The more you know R.I.P. C3 mall tho
I read a book about olmsted recently, Power of Scenery
The background piano music in the inteo and outro is familiar. Can you share the name?
“On Top of Old Smoky”
ask me what reddog is
What's red dog? Actually, I know what it is. The city paved the alley behind my grandmother's house with red dog and it killed her hedges.
I’ve heard Pittsburg was a dump, but apparently it’s several dumps
Those are hills, not mountains.