Cementing a Place in History

Join us for a tour back to the future of the cement industry in America.
This fascinating industrial history tour will visit the Lafarge Corporation
Whitehall Plant that has been producing cement for over a century, the David
Saylor historic site containing the first cement kilns and birthplace of the
Portland cement industry in the U.S., and the Atlas Cement Memorial Museum.
These sites are located a few miles from Allentown, PA.  The tour is
co-sponsored with the Mid Atlantic Association of Museums.

The Whitehall Cement Plant stands on a belt of "cement stone", a type of
limestone with impurities, that is 30 miles long and about 2 miles wide.  The
stone is unique in that it requires only a small amount of additional
materials to produce cement, and that was the natural feature that first
attracted the cement industry to Pennsylvania.  The more than 60 cement
plants that dominated the region and employed thousands of people have almost
all disappeared.  Their history was all but forgotten, and very few records
survived.  However, the passion of one man to tell the story of the people
who made the cement for projects as great as the Panama Canal has created a
unique museum.  Mr. Edward Pany worked in the Atlas Cement plant as a young
man, and later became a history teacher in the local high school and a
champion of the history of the people who made cement.  He will lead the tour
of the David Saylor historic site and Atlas Cement Museum.  The museum
includes a collection of artifacts and stories related to the history of the
cement companies and cement workers.

The tour will start with the 101 year-old Whitehall cement plant and will be
led by Herb Johns, Lafarge Corporation Product Manager.  Mr. Johns has worked
in the plant since 1966 and will begin with an orientation, then a trip to an
operating limestone quarry and then on to the tour of the plant.  The plant
tour will include the stone crusher, hammer mill, storage silos, blending
stations, giant rotating ball mills, coal mill, heat exchangers, 150 foot
long rotating kilns, computerized control room, testing labs, and finally the
bagging operation and bulk loaders where cement products are shipped to the
customer.

The cement plant produces a very fine powder that may get on clothing and
shoes.  However, you will be surprised at how little dust there is in the
operation.  Casual clothing is recommended.  The majority of the plant tour
is not accessible for those with disabilities.

Bus transportation will be provided leaving from Harrisburg at 8:00 a.m. and
return to Harrisburg around 5:30 p.m., with a stop in Hershey for those
people attending the Mid Atlantic Association of Museum's Evening of
Chocolate Decadence.  A box lunch will be provided during the trip.  There
will be a registration fee for the tour that will cover the cost of
transportation and the box lunch, to be determined.