Midland Steel Company purchased land from four farmers, and as the company grew in the early 1900s, Italians and Slovaks migrated to the region to meet the demand for workers. In 1911, Crucible formed the Pittsburgh Crucible Steel Company and purchased a 423-acre site from Midland Steel on the Ohio River for $7.5 million to build a new plant. After the mill opened, Midland became Crucible’s planned town.

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the local steel plant changed ownership four times. With each change, came job losses. Eventually, several thousand jobs were reduced to just 500, and property and wage taxes totaling $1.6 million were no longer available to the town.