Black Monday: Can it happen to new boom towns?

Black Monday: Can it happen to new boom towns?

CAMPBELL — Like a stomach punch, the news hit men so hard they bent over — tried to breathe, but couldn’t.

On Black Monday, Sept. 19, 1977, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. announced its Campbell Works on Youngstown’s East Side would close, wiping out 4,100 jobs.

“We thought we’d be there until we retired,” said Robert Shaffer, who as a 47-year-old Steelworker was stunned when the calamity hit him. “I thought I’d get a good pension.”

After the Campbell Works went cold, one mill after another shut down along the Mahoning River, eliminating some 10,000 steel jobs in less than three years. Tens of thousands of additional jobs disappeared for suppliers, fabricators, truckers and others.

Youngstown, a once-boisterous boom town, saw its population plunge from about 140,000 in the early 1970s to 81,500 today.

Thirty years later, mayors, professors and labor leaders are still studying the lessons of Black Monday. They wonder: Can new boom towns avoid busts like the one that pummeled this area?

For the complete story, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.