M anufacturing Regions of the United States 
Qo 
The Great Lakes-Ohio River Manufacturing District 
The third of the intensive manufacturing districts is fan-shaped, 
with Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee at the angles. One sixth 
of the country’s cities of more than 75,000 people are in this district. 
The kind of manufacturing carried on. This district may well 
be called the coal and iron district, because it is covered with cities 
whose chief raw materials are coal and iron. These two minerals 
naturally meet here, for much of the surface is underlain by coal de- 
posits and the best of iron ore is brought at low cost from the western 
end of Lake Superior. 
In scores of cities coal and iron are the rough sources of all sorts of 
wonderful machines and articles of steel. These articles are chiefly 
automobiles at Detroit, ships at Cleveland, cars at Chicago, rails 
at Pittsburgh, machinery at Milwaukee, building frames at Youngs- 
town, and cash registers at Dayton. The exact kind of product in 
each city is often determined by the striking success of one company 
in a pioneer industry. For instance, after one company had made 
Detroit famous for automobiles, other companies were formed to take 
advantage not only of the fame of the city in this line, but of the skilled 
labor which had gathered there. 
Other important manufacturing industries. Although the Great 
Lakes-Ohio River district is best known for steel products, it is im- 
portant in many other respects also. No other region, for instance, 
is so prominent in the slaughtering and meat-packing industry. This 
is partly because there is an abundant supply of corn, hay, and alfalfa 
for fattening cattle and pigs, and partly because the region lies midway 
between the western grazing lands and the eastern markets. Chicago 
alone carries on about one fourth of the country’s slaughtering and 
meat packing. 
The location of this district in the eastern part of the grain region, 
and its dense population, make it important in milling flour and grind- 
ing corn. Nearly every town, large or small, has its own flour mills. 
Some convert corn, wheat, and oats into many kinds of cereal foods. 
Battle Creek, Michigan, is the country’s leading center for such foods. 
Still another important industry is the manufacture of wooden 
articles, such as furniture, refrigerators, carriages, boxes, and barrels. 
Most of the lumber for these comes from the forests of Michigan, 
Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Chicago makes more wooden articles of 
all kinds than any other place in the country, but Grand Rapids holds 
first place in furniture making.