Union Stock Yards
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The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards was a company and place in Chicago, Illinois. It operated for 106 years beginning on Christmas Day in 1865 to 1971 after several decades of decline brought on by the decentralization of the meat packing industry. The stock yards made Chicago the center of the American meat packing industry for decades and at one point more meat was processed here than in any other place in the world. In fact the size and scale of the stockyards along with technological advancements in railcar refrigeration allowed for the creation of some of America's first truly global companies led by entrepreneurs such as Gustavus Franklin Swift and Philip Danforth Armour.
In 1906, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle uncovering the horrid conditions in the stock yards at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The Chicago Union Stock Yards Fire occurred from December 22 to December 23, 1910 and resulted in the deaths of twenty-one firemen, including the fire marshal.
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