Fontana
Kaiser Steel
13340 San Bernardino Ave. (@ California Steel Wy.), Fontana
Henry Kaiser’s 1942 Fontana steel mill, the first of its kind on the West Coast, flourished during WWII and through the Cold War. The plant supplied materials to feed the postwar consumer spending spree, all while laying the groundwork for the region's new empire of logistics.
Kaiser made a name for himself constructing roads, dams, and cargo ships — key infrastructure for California’s growth. He challenged eastern Big Steel by taking federal wartime loans and vertically integrating his production from raw materials to finished plates, girders, pipes, and millions of heavy artillery shells. With furnaces blasting and open hearth pits flaring, business boomed at Kaiser. Its bust came with 1970s-era global competition. At its peak Kaiser employed 9,000. These jobs were lost. The Superfund-rated toxic nightmare remained. Decades later, a racetrack and millions square feet of distribution centers fill the Kaiser property, with a master plan to develop another mega-logistics site. Tract housing developments sit next door to miles of salvage yards, recycling plants, and trucking companies, all memorializing Fontana’s military and industrial past.
From the Archives
by A People’s History of the I.E.
Click on the images below to uncover the story.
Steel Dreams | Fontana
by Tamara Cedré
Kaiser Steel Productions, 2024
by Tamara Cedré
Montage of vintage film footage
Courtesy of the artist
Resources
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CCAEJ – Center for Community Action and Environmental Justiceis a community-based organization fighting for environmental justice and equity in Bloomington and throughout the I.E.
Inland Empire Labor Institute partners with economic, social, and environmental organizations to prioritize the needs of workers in communities and families.
PC4EJ – People’s Collective for Environmental Justice fights for environmental justice and challenges the cultural and systemic roots of white supremacy.
South Fontana Concerned Citizens Coalition is founded by local residents who work to ensure their community has the resources they need. @southfontana
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City of Quartz by Mike Davis documents the history of Fontana in the chapter “Junkyard of Dreams.”
Climates of Inequality, “Kaiser Steel and the Slow Violence of the Supply Chain.”
Plug In I.E. and I.E. Labor Center, “State of Work: Transportation, Distribution and Logistics Report” (Feb. 2024) includes data and interviews with residents of the I.E., including Fontana.
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Fontana Historical Society stewards archives related to the area, including Kaiser Steel, oversees two historic sites (one that was a foreman’s house on A. B. Miller’s ranch, which now serves as a museum), and has a history room at the Fontana Public Library’s Lewis Technology Center.
UCR ARTS California Museum of Photography holds the archives of Will Connell (over 15,000 negatives and prints), who photographed Kaiser Steel in Fontana for the company.