History & local legend
Slag Pile Annie is a steel-mill legend associated with Jones & Laughlin’s former Hazelwood furnaces. In the version collected by Pittsburgh folklorist Thomas White, a college student working as a slag-buggy driver encounters a woman in work clothes and a bandanna standing beneath a dangerous pour.
The student warns her to move. Instead, she tells him there is no point worrying about being killed because she is already dead. He reports the encounter to his foreman, who recognizes Annie from the description. According to the story, she had done the same job during the Second World War and died when molten slag splashed onto her from above.
Sources
- The Duquesne Duke, interview with archivist and folklorist Thomas White on the Hazelwood story
- Positively Pittsburgh, Spirits of the Steel Mills, Pittsburgh steelworker traditions
- National Park Service, Eliza Furnace Trail, trailhead coordinates and former J&L furnace corridor
- Historic nomination, Jones & Laughlin Steel Company Building, north- and south-bank operations
- Library of Congress, Jones & Laughlin steel furnaces
