For most of American history between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the meatpacking capital of the country was located in Cincinnati. However, as early as 1827, that was already starting to change, as that was the year that Archibauld Clybourn started the first meatpacking operation in the city. Over the next two decades, meatpacking continued to dig in its heels in Chicago, mostly through individual saloon owners who would lease extra space behind their establishments to the railroads as cattle raising space.
Finally, in 1848 the first stock yard was opened in the city when the Bull's Head Market commenced operations. Located on the West Side over by Madison and Ogden, this market helped to consolidate the operations of some of the smaller yards. However, this was not a vertically-integrated solution, as the meat still had to be shipped to Cincinnati in order to complete the process. But this slowly was changing. Between 1852 and 1865, 5 different railroads moved into the city and set up operations, some of them even setting up their own stockyards. Another factor in Chicago's ascendancy as the hog-butcher of the world was the Civil War. Since the Confederacy ran a successful blockade of the Mississippi for the duration of the war, the Union had to get creative. The idea that eventually won out was to feed the Armies of the Potomac with Chicago's meat. The uptick in business to Chi-town was so dramatic that within 5 years, the number of hogs slaughtered in the city rose from 392,000 to more than 1.4 Million.
After Appomattox, the infrastructure remained. Finally, all of the city's different yards consolidated in 1865 to form the Union Stock Yards. The property was bordered by Halsted St. and Racine Ave. on the east and west, and 39th and 47th on the north and south. The yards truly were a massive operation. At their peak, they covered 1 square mile, there was space for more than 100,000 animals to be housed simultaneously, the yards employed more than 40,000 men, and the yards processed 82 Percent of all the domestic meat consumed in the entire county. Between 1908 and 1957, there was even an elevated line that serviced the yards. The Yards were an entirely self-contained community, featuring farms, slaughterhouses, hotels, saloons, and even a limited number of residences(apparently taking a page from George Pullman's playbook). The working conditions at the Yards left something to be desired though, as Upton Sinclair would reveal to the world in his 1906 bestseller The Jungle.
Not only were they a seminal part of Chicago History, but The Yards also gave us several different innovations. For one, Phillip Armour opened a plant in the Yards(and at 12 acres, it was the world's biggest factory at the time) when they first came about. In order to speed up the processing of the meat, Armour came up with the idea of the assembly line, which in this case involved having many different people all work together to gut and slaughter one piece of livestock. This concept was later taken by Henry Ford and refined into a new way to make cars.
Also, you may or may not be aware that our city has a healthy financial district. Well, this also comes to us courtesy of the yards. You see, the presence of all that cattle meat that farmers wanted some assurances that they wouldn't go under if things went south with affairs after the cattle left their possession. And hence, the demand for a futures market was born. Farmers would be guaranteed a price for their cattle, and be guarded against any market fluctuations in the meantime. Chicago's status today as a financial powerhouse is due in no small part to this legacy. Another legacy of the Yards is the International Amphitheatre, which went on to host many different affairs, including the Auto Show and the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The yard also saw the second deadliest building collapse in history when a fire broke out in 1910(the deadliest of course being 9/11).
Continued innovations in the field of transportation and refrigeration started eating away at the Yards' market share in the 1950s. By 1971, the last meatpacking operations had closed, and 106 years of tradition officially came to an end at midnight on July 30 of that year. Nowadays, all that remains of the Yards is the entrance gate, which was made a National Landmark in 1972. The community known as Back of the Yards still holds a bustling immigrant community to this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment