Duluth Works

The Duluth Works was an industrial steel and cement manufacturing complex located in Duluth, Minnesota, in operation 1915 to 1987. The complex was operated by the United States Steel Corporation. Officially, the plant's purpose was to supply the growing Midwest with steel finished products. Unofficially, they were built as part of a "gentleman's agreement" between U.S. Steel and the State of Minnesota to not impose hefty iron ore taxes on U.S. Steel in exchange for a fully integrated steel plant within Minnesota, whose mines furnished 80% of the ore to U.S. Steel. The combined works of the steel and cement plant were the largest employers in the city of Duluth and the fourth largest industrial complex in the state of Minnesota.

In 1907, U.S. Steel agreed to build an integrated steel plant in the vicinity of Duluth, Minnesota, which was 70 miles (110 km) from the largest iron ore source in the United States, the Iron Range. U.S. Steel theorized that by using the Great Lakes it could haul limestone and coal to Duluth from the lower lakes, and return with a load of iron ore from Minnesota, which they previously only hauled from Minnesota, returning empty. It was thought that by using this process, Duluth would become a great center of manufacturing in the United States.

In June 1907, U.S. Steel incorporated the Minnesota Steel Company, a wholly owned subsidiary, to manage and care for all plans of the future developments of the steel plant. This included homes for its new employees, to be built adjacent to its new plant in Duluth, which eventually became known as Morgan Park, named for J.P. Morgan, chairman of the board for U.S. Steel. This innovative planned company town was only open to employees of the Minnesota Steel Company and later, the companies that followed.

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