The Calumet region of Southeast Chicago and Northwest Indiana was once one of the largest industrial corridors in the world.

For a century, steel mills dominated the landscape.

Workers could get fired for taking pictures in the mills.

But when the mills closed, some brought their video cameras to document the last days.

After the steel mills opened in the late 19th century, hundreds of thousands of immigrants and migrants came looking for jobs in the Calumet region.

The mills were a cauldron of fire, heat, and molten metal.

Workers from different backgrounds came together in this tumultuous mix.

The hardships of the steel mills were legendary. Accidents and even deaths were common.

The intensity of the job forged a deep camaraderie among workers. But sometimes tensions could simmer and boil over.

Historically, mill managers pitted different ethnic and racial groups against each other to keep workers from unionizing and wages low.

Workers in some groups would also try to control access to better paying jobs at the expense of others.

Women also had a tough time breaking into mill work. By the 1970s, however, they were a growing presence.

Sometimes workers found ways to come together despite the divisions.

The unions were the main route.

The experience of the Calumet region wasn’t unique. Over the next few decades, virtually every part of the U.S. lost industrial jobs.

Between 1980 and 2014, 7 million industrial jobs were lost in the United States.

The reason why each mill closed was different, but corporate restructuring, growing global competition, and changing government policies were key.

Even in Indiana where some mills survived, most jobs disappeared.

Some workers spiraled downward. Others fought the closings.

At Wisconsin Steel, laid-off workers formed the “Save Our Jobs Committee.”

They were fighting the aftermath of a questionable company buy-out that helped bankrupt the mill.

After the abrupt shutdown, workers not only lost their jobs, they lost their pensions, health insurance, last paychecks, and other benefits owed to them.

The Save Our Jobs Committee filed lawsuits alleging Wisconsin Steel’s buyout was a ’sham’ transaction designed to defraud workers of their pension fund.

Save Our Jobs meetings also offered a social lifeline for unemployed workers facing isolation and depression.

After thirteen years of a David-and-Goliath struggle, the Save Our Jobs Committee won both lawsuits.

Although they won back a fraction of the lost wages and benefits owed to Wisconsin steelworkers, many workers didn’t live to see it.

By that time, over 800 had died, many from lack of healthcare, stress-related illnesses, alcoholism, or suicide.

In the years following Wisconsin Steel’s closure, tens of thousands more jobs disappeared in the region.

By the time steelworkers at South Works made their videotapes, there were only a few hundred employees left at the mill.

It was the end of an era.

When the mills were demolished, workers were there with their video cameras.

Some workers saved things to remember what was being lost.

In many places like Southeast Chicago, the good jobs never returned.

More and more industrial jobs have become non-union, contract, or temp work – or have been automated away entirely.

But some old union hands in the Calumet region are leading the fight to create good jobs for the next generation.

Resident mediamaker Steve Walsh talks to his grandfather Coco Gomez about working in the mills and the differences between their generations.

The South Works mill where the workers videotaped their last days is now known as Steelworker’s Park.

The walls were so massive, bulldozers couldn’t knock them down.

People from Southeast Chicago still come here to remember.

We asked residents of the Calumet region to leave a message on the wall.