Edwin J. Johnson, Springville, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, February 8, 2002: Saving the Legacy tape nos. 489 & 490

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EDWIN J. JOHNSON F BR R 2002 Coast. The Geneva location on Utah Lake was cho en becau e it proximity to iron ore from Iron County, coal for coke from Carbon County, limestone for flux from quarrie m the nearby mountains, abundant water from the Utah Lake and rivers and a well­developed railroad network infrastructure that linked the raw material sources with the works and the works with their industrial customers. It cost the government $144,000,000 to construct the works. US Steel bought them from the government in 1946 for $47,500,000 and operated them for the next forty years. During that period, the Geneva Steel Plant was the basis of a major part of the Utah County economy. Foreign competition finally forced the US Steel to close the Geneva Works. They were sold to local interests in 1987. A portion of the works reopened as a specialty steel manufacturing operation and operated until 1999 when the works closed for good. The equipment was dismantled and sold, the buildings demolished and the land sold for development.] BB: Was that danger pay or--? EJJ: Some. BB: You were up on scaffolding, I guess? EJJ: Well, how they worked that, they'd start out reinforcing and go up. They had a derrick with four chain blocks and they'd lift it up on the inside. They had forms on the inside and another one that pulled around the outside. We'd pull the outside forms. They'd buckle them in and get it right and then bring the inside form in. Before that, they'd put in all the reinforcing steel and tie it in. We were down sending that up. Then when it was time to pour, we'd mix the cement and send it up in a bowl on a cable. It would be pulled up the middle. We'd go up and be dumping it into the forms when it came up. Sometimes we'd work up on the forms and sometimes we'd work down below. 8