Shawn Beckert muses:

I know that both Texas and California had heavy industries that
used steel. Where that steel came from is the big unknown. I've
always thought that steel pipe, plate and other shapes came from
back east to be used west of the Mississippi, but it's clear that
there were plants capable of producing steel products out west as
well.

The specialized shapes and alloys would have been produced in the big
eastern mills. "Plain Jane" shapes can be rolled in much less specialized
mills, or in single-purpose mills like the U.S. Steel facility for tinplate
at Pittsburg, Calif. For example, a great deal of pipe was made at Kaiser,
both in Southern California and at their plant in Napa: it just takes steel
sheet and some machinery <g>. Really low-tech stuff like rebar can
practically be made by a remelter in his backyard. So how far the "steel"
is shipped depends on "which steel." To generalize about "steel shipments"
is a little naive.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 http://www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroads and on Western history