Rocky Mountain Steel Mills Muscle.

Colorado industrialists John Cleveland Osgood and William Jackson Palmer in 1892 established Colorado Fuel and Iron in Pueblo. Now the company, called Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, is a division of Portland, Ore-based Oregon Steel Mills Inc. (See www.osm.com).

At its 1970s peak, the plant produced a million tons of steel annually and employed 4,000 workers. Today, it produces 700,000 tons of finished steel goods per year with 700 workers. The plant generates revenues of about $240 million, or $350,000 per employee.

Rocky Mountain Steel Mills is one of two U.S. plants to make railroad rail. Its other big product is rod, from which...