The Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel Mill is a fascinating place. It’s old, rusted, and steeped in local history. The former Colorado Fuel & Iron mill is but a shell of its former self. While still producing rail and wire, it no longer has the thousands of workers on the payroll it had ion its heyday 60-70 years ago, when Pueblo truly was a steel city. During the early 1980s, the steel industry collapsed, and Pueblo’s economy was devastated. It’s never really recovered.
Remnants of the blast furnaces line the west side of mill and parallel Interstate 25. Every day, thousands of people drive by the symbolic reminder of Pueblo’s rich manufacturing past and the economic prosperity that continues to elude the city.
It’s hard to miss the Hellbeck Tank. It’s a shade of Robin egg blue and stands 115-feet high. It was brought online in 1955 on Pueblo’s south side.
The water tower received a million-dollar makeover in 2013 and is part of an 18-tank network used by the Pueblo Board of Waterworks to supply the city with water.
