Things to see at the Kaiser Museum

John Anicic, president of the Fontana Heritage Museum Association, gets ready for the opening of the Kaiser Museum. The museum will be opened Thursdays and Sundays starting Nov. 5.


Will Lester/
Staff Photographer

The Kaiser Museum on Hellman Avenue and San Bernardino Road in Rancho Cucamonga is small but it's packed with trinkets telling the history of Kaiser Steel.

Pigs -- This collection of pig figurines does not beat the one at Nancy's Cafe, the restaurant on Arrow and Archibald adorned with piggy trinkets, but it's sizable. If Kaiser had a mascot, it'd be the pig. The plant site was once a pig farm. The product of the blast furnace is the pig iron. The valve to the blast furnace is the snorter. And the company's monthly newsletter was also called the Snorter.

Wooden shoe -- Workers in the coke ovens had to wear a wooden shoe in addition to their regular shoes. These ovens would get about 125 degrees so these wooden shoes were necessary. A former employee told me without them, you'd get a "hot foot" in about a minute.

Neon arrow -- An old neon sign at Foothill and Sierra used to hang over the intersection pointing toward downtown Fontana. The sign was torn down and abandoned in some field before it was rescued. It looks like a crumpled piece of metal now but museum organizers are thinking of making a replica because, well, neon's awesome.

Hard hats -- Before fiberglass hard hats were used, there were metal hard hats. That was not a good idea because workers would get electrocuted. Among the collection is one metal hat belonging to former Fontana Mayor Frank Horzen, who was a foreman at Kaiser.


Organizers are planning a grand opening and a Kaiser employee reunion in January. If the turnout is good, the museum won't be able to house them all. Perhaps they can have it at a local bar restaurant like Sycamore Inn. Back in the day, local bars would be teeming with Kaiser employees, especially on payday.

Bert Bene, who worked there for 20 years, remember it well.

"The Kaiser Steel paycheck was honored every where," he said. "You'd have it crumpled up ... with grease on it, and they'd still take it. It was like gold." 


Here's the article about the museum in today's newspaper.