This photo is titled ‘Columbia Steel Company at Ironton, Utah a locomotive outside the blast furnace’.

The Utahrails website gives an early history of the steelworks, but doesn’t explain its relatively short life of only 40 years. Despite the lack of established heavy industry in the area, Utah was home to deposits of iron ore, coal and limestone, all essential ingredients for making steel.

This somewhat jumbled history of the site implies the sites decline and closure was due to obsolete facilities and lack of demand in the west side of the continent.