Gautier Steel Ltd.

Gautier Steel Ltd. is one of the nation's leading producers of hot rolled carbon and alloy flats and sharp cornered squares. Our bar mills allow us the flexibility to roll a broad range of shapes and sizes.

Our Heritage

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is a name synonymous with the words iron and steel. Blessed with abundant deposits of iron ore, coal, wood, a water supply and a developed transportation system via canal, Johnstown was a natural location for a growing industry.

The growth and development of the American iron and steel industry was one of the wonders of industrialism. It was the bases for American global power, as cheap steel allowed for the rapid expansion of the railroad and automobile industries. Thus, the significance of the Cambria Iron Company, predecessor to Gautier Steel, has to be placed within the context of the evolution of the American iron and steel industry.

The Gautier Department, founded by Josiah H. Gautier, was moved to Johnstown from Jersey City, New Jersey in 1878 to be near sources of raw materials and to tie into western markets.

The plant was built on the south bank of the Little Conemaugh River and bordered by the Pennsylvania Canal, on what was called the “Island”.

For three years Gautier was a distinct subsidiary of the Cambria Iron Company and was a limited partner. The firm’s members included Daniel J. Morrell, George Webb, Daniel N. Jones, Josiah H. Gautier, Thomas B. Gautier, and Dudley G. Gautier. In July 1881 the partnership was dissolved and the Gautier works became a department of the Cambria Iron Company. By 1888 the department had a brick building 200 feet by 500 feet where wire was annealed, drawn, and finished. Another building contained the barb wire mill where the famous “Cambria Link” barb wire (along with all other wire products) was made. A merchant mill building produced wire rod, shafting, springs, plowshares, rake and harrow teeth and agricultural steel. A cold rolling shop also operated.

On May 30 through June 1, 1889, massive rains were more than the local South Fork Dam could handle and the infamous Johnstown Flood was the result. Almost 7,000 men and women were on the Cambria Iron Company’s payrolls when the flood desolated the Conemaugh Valley.

In downtown Johnstown, the floodwaters severely damaged the Company Store (formerly the Penn Traffic Building) and its contents were mired in mud. Cambria Iron also lost 256 workers homes out of the 500 existing in Johnstown. Heavy machinery from the mills appeared in strange sites all over the city.

Steam pumps from the Woodvale woolen mill, each weighing fifty tons, were pushed by the water 350 feet from their bases. Eight-ton ingots from the blooming mill were rolled away and 100,000 bricks from the company brickyard lodged at the Franklin Bridge. The entire Gautier Department was destroyed in the flood and little remained except for foundations and portions of engines and roll trains. About 200 rolls of steel cable and barbed wire weighing 200,000 pounds added to the flood debris, which roared toward downtown Johnstown and lodged at the famous Stone Bridge. An estimated 225 employees were among the 2209 people who tragically lost their lives.

The integrity of the Gautier Plant is high, as the buildings stand as built after the 1890’s with few major alterations. The plant physically dominates sections of Johnstown, being visible at the end of several streets leading toward the river. Sections of the plant stand empty or are used for storage. Buildings closely identified with steel manufacturing and fabrication processes stand intact. Much of the historic machinery has been demolished through the years as products and the marketplace changed; however, three bar mills are still active inside the historic buildings, including the 14” Mill (ca. 1924), which contains roll stands dating from the 1950’s manufactured by Continental Roll and Steel Foundry Co., and Blaw-Knox Company, the 9”-2 Mill (ca. 1924), containing a gas-fired furnace, 1950’s Continental or Blaw-Knox stands, and the 12”-1 Mill (ca. 1893), which contains two-high and three-high, ca. 1920’s Blaw-Knox roll stands, 15-ton Cleveland overhead crane, and a 1903 gas fired furnace.

Our steel mills in Johnstown made an important contribution to the history of American industrialism. Nationally significant from its founding in 1852, the company attracted and employed the brightest minds in the world of iron and steel engineering. The first steel rails rolled on commercial order in America were produced, and technological advancements in the steel process were made. Nominated as a National Historic Landmark, it was significant in the areas of industry, engineering, architecture, and European ethnic heritage.

The plant, now known as Gautier Steel Ltd., continues to survive in the highly competitive and economically unstable world of steel, just as remnants of the rail we once rolled survive in forgotten side tracks across the country.