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Kaiser Steel

Companies based in San Bernardino County, CaliforniaEconomy of San Bernardino County, CaliforniaFontana, CaliforniaGeographic coordinate listsHenry J. Kaiser
Lists of coordinatesManufacturing companies based in CaliforniaPages actively undergoing constructionPages with non-numeric formatnum argumentsSteel companies of the United StatesUse mdy dates from October 2022
Interior of Kaiser Steel (cropped)
Interior of Kaiser Steel (cropped)

Kaiser Steel was a steel company and integrated steel mill near Fontana, California. Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser founded the company on December 1, 1941, and workers fired up the plant's first blast furnace, named "Bess No. 1" after Kaiser's wife, on December 30, 1942. Then on August 1943, the plant would produce its first steel plate for the Pacific Coast shipbuilding industry amid World War II. Resources for early production came from various sources, and the Fontana site presented some logistical disadvantages. However, the plant continued to grow in capacity after the war, adding more furnaces and metal rollers while also introducing new processes. The company would also eventually develop its own mines and railroad so that the steel mill formed a node in Kaiser's larger, vertically-integrated business: materials sourced from Kaiser-owned mines would yield steel for Kaiser industries (among other customers), and company workers would even receive medical care through Kaiser Permanente, an affiliated health maintenance organization. The Korean War led to another surge in production, and by the 1950s, Kaiser Steel and competitor Geneva Steel, a U.S. Steel-owned plant near Salt Lake City, Utah, had captured most of the Pacific Coast steel market. In the 1960s and 1970s though, Japanese and Korean steelmakers would begin out-competing the mill; despite attempts to adapt, the company would enter a steady decline until the mill closed in December 1983. Since then, much of the land in Fontana was sold to create the Auto Club Speedway, while a small portion of the plant still performs rolling operations under different ownership as California Steel Industries.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Kaiser Steel (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Kaiser Steel
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N 34.0888 ° E -117.50071 °
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Back Straight Road
92335
California, United States
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Interior of Kaiser Steel (cropped)
Interior of Kaiser Steel (cropped)
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Auto Club Speedway
Auto Club Speedway

Auto Club Speedway (known as California Speedway before and after 2008–2023 corporate sponsorship from Auto Club) was a 2.000 mi (3.219 km), D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It hosted NASCAR racing annually from 1997 until 2023. It was also previously used for open wheel racing events. The racetrack is located 47 mi (76 km) east of Los Angeles and is near the former locations of Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside International Raceway. The track is owned and operated by NASCAR. The speedway is served by the nearby Interstates 10 and 15 freeways as well as a Metrolink station located behind the backstretch. Construction of the track, on the site of the former Kaiser Steel Mill, began in 1995 and was completed in late 1996. The speedway's main grandstand has a capacity of 68,000, additionally it features 28 skyboxes and has a grand total capacity of 122,000. In 2006, a fanzone was added behind the main grandstand. Lights were added to the speedway in 2004 with the addition of a second annual NASCAR weekend. Since 2011, the track has hosted only one NASCAR weekend each year. A 500-mile American open-wheel car race was held under Championship Auto Racing Teams sanctioning from 1997 to 2002. The current IndyCar sanctioning body ran a 400-mile race from 2002 to 2005 and a 500-mile race from 2012 to 2015, which was usually the season finale. Its last IndyCar race was the 2015 MAVTV 500. In 2023, the track was closed for reconstruction as part of the Next Gen California project. Demolition began in October of that year.

2001 Marlboro 500
2001 Marlboro 500

The 2001 Marlboro 500 was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on November 4, 2001 at the California Speedway, in Fontana, California. It was the 21st and final round of the 2001 CART season and the fifth annual edition of the Marlboro 500 at California Speedway. The 220-lap race was won by Newman/Haas Racing driver Cristiano da Matta who started from second position. Max Papis finished second for Team Rahal and Forsythe Racing driver Alex Tagliani came in third. Tagliani won the pole position but was passed by Bryan Herta on the first lap. Papis moved into the lead on the fifth lap and remained there for 54 laps more than any other driver during the course of the race. Most drivers chose to run in front of the field but not take the lead because they wanted to conserve fuel. The race was reduced from its original distance of 250 laps to 220 because of fading daylight and the event was delayed by morning rain. Da Matta held off Papis at the start-finish line to win after a caution period for a crash involving Scott Dixon ended competitive racing in the event. There were eight cautions and a CART record-breaking 73 lead changes by 19 different drivers during the course of the race. It was da Matta's third (and final) victory of the season, his first in Fontana, and the fourth of his career. Seventh-place finisher Michael Andretti moved in front of Hélio Castroneves to secure third position after the latter retired with an engine failure. 75,000 people attended the event.

Bono's Restaurant and Deli
Bono's Restaurant and Deli

Bono's Restaurant and Deli is a historic restaurant located at 15395 Foothill Boulevard in Fontana, California. The restaurant opened in 1936 to serve travelers on U.S. Route 66, which then passed in front of the site; it originally operated as a produce stand. In 1943, increased traffic on the highway prompted the owners to expand their operations, and the current building was constructed as a full-service restaurant. The restaurant building has a Streamline Moderne design and features red and green stripes promoting its Italian cuisine as well as painted grapevines promoting its wine. As Fontana's Italian immigrant community grew in the 1940s, the restaurant also became a local source of Italian foods previously unavailable in the area.The Big Orange, a 7-foot (2.1 m) tall orange-shaped citrus stand, is located on the property of the restaurant. The orange was originally located 3 miles (4.8 km) to the east; restaurant owner Joe Bono [cousin of Sonny Bono] purchased the stand in the 1990s and moved it to its current site. While the restaurant had an orange-shaped stand of its own when it served Route 66 traffic, it was eventually demolished due to decreased demand. The Big Orange is one of six surviving orange-shaped buildings in California.The restaurant, which reopened on February 8, 2019, after being closed for many years, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. Joe Bono received permission to move the building 20 feet (6.1 m) back from Foothill Boulevard in 2013.