Great Lakes Steel

Some folks will tell you that the three engineering feats that made such an enormous impact on the war effort, were the development of the Jeep, the DC-3 transport plane, and the ubiquitous Quonset Hut.

As anyone who has done any research on the Quonset Hut knows there where several designs and redesigns. The George A. Fuller and Company's engineers found a faster, cheaper way to assemble huts using an existing building product for the rib. Known as Stran-Steel, it was developed in the early 1930s by Great Lakes Steel Corporation, but had never caught on due to the premium price. It was a welded steel strip 2 by 3 5/8 inches, actually two lightweight channels welded back to back - with a wavy center groove that held special nails with lead seals.

The "Quonset Stran-Steel Hut" was so simple to erect that anyone who could hammer a nail could set it up. A crew of just 6 experienced men could build a hut in a single day.

Production of the original T-Rib Huts was halted sometime in 1942. Thereafter all huts used Stran-Steel ribs. With the change, the Fuller factory in West Davisville, RI. was closed and production moved to Great Lakes Steel Corporation in Ecorse, MI.

Now known as Great Lakes Works as a part of United States Steel Corporation. Great Lakes Works, situated along the Detroit River in Ecorse, MI. consists of both steelmaking and finishing facilities, making it one of five integrated steelmaking facilities U. S. Steel operates in the United States.