A Wever resident invokes Foxconn amid Mesabi project skepticism
Mesabi Metallics had not identified a site for the $15 billion Iowa steel mill announced in late September, and Mike Strom said his search for evidence of a land deal had turned up nothing by November 2. Strom, who owns both the bar and the restaurant in Wever, said he had poured through public records and talked with neighbors. He found no records of land sales, not even confidential records that could have signaled a deal. People he knew in the floodplain where locals suspected the mill could be built had not reported anyone coming by to ask about their land. “I’m a huge proponent of, I’ll believe it when I see it,” Strom said. “Because you hear a lot of things.”
One month after the announcement and just days before the midterm election, The Guardian reported that word had spread in Wever, population 142, that the mill would be built somewhere nearby. There were no shovels in the dirt, workers on a job site or machinery on the dirt roads leading down toward the Mississippi River.
On a Monday afternoon in late September, Donald Trump gathered Iowa Republicans in the Oval Office and announced that Mesabi Metallics would invest $15 billion in an Iowa mill that he said would make the state home of the country’s largest steel mill. A White House photograph credited to Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images showed Trump answering questions on Sept. 28 after announcing the plans.
According to the White House, the project would create 6,000 jobs during construction, 1,750 after completion and $95 billion in economic activity. Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature quickly approved $1.4 billion in tax breaks for the project.
Charles Sutton, a spokesperson for Mesabi, said the Minnesota-based company, part of the Indian conglomerate Essar Group, was on track to produce steel by 2030 from a site in “eastern Iowa.” The location would be announced “in the very near future,” he said. “The project is in active development with strong momentum,” Sutton said. “We anticipate being able to make several announcements in the coming weeks in line with the project schedule.” Details of the mill remained under negotiation between the county and Mesabi. A photograph credited to Charlie Neibergall/AP showed Iowans listening to Mesabi’s CEO speak during an Iowa legislative meeting in Des Moines on Oct. 2.
The public announcement came just over a month before Tuesday’s midterm elections, when Iowa was expected to play a major role in determining whether Democrats regained control of Congress amid Trump’s downbeat approval ratings. Wever lay in a congressional district viewed as the state’s most competitive. The proposal also came to a rural part of Iowa with a long history of both manufacturing and the industrial disinvestment that had struck much of the Midwest.
Local reaction mixed interest in jobs with skepticism about whether the mill would be built. At Green Bay Bar and Grill, Wever’s only restaurant, Missy Pollpeter, 52, said “More jobs” as she dined. Her husband, Mike Pollpeter, 60, said “If they bring it here” as he finished a burger. At Green Bay “Bottoms Up,” the town’s only bar, Jeff Thompson asked “Remember Foxconn?” while serving drinks. Foxconn was the electronics manufacturing giant Trump said would build a massive factory in neighboring Wisconsin during his first term, though the project later flopped. Days after debuting the Iowa plan, Trump said South Korea would invest $54 billion in a long-discussed natural-gas pipeline in Alaska; officials in Seoul said they had agreed to no such deal.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who represents southeastern Iowa, said “the project is for sure happening.” She won a third term in 2024 by fewer than 800 votes and was a top target for Democrats seeking to regain control of Congress’s lower chamber. As she campaigned in Fort Madison, 10 minutes south of Wever, Miller-Meeks credited Trump’s tariff regime and his major domestic policy bill with making the project possible, but said the mill’s details remained under negotiation between the county and Mesabi. “It will be on the outcome of those negotiations, but it will be coming to south-east Iowa,” she said. A campaign photograph credited to Scott Olson/Getty Images showed Miller-Meeks speaking in Davenport on Oct. 9.
To Democrats hoping to win statewide office after years of losses, the plant was desirable if it happened. Democratic state representative Josh Turek, who was running for US Senate, said “I hope so” when asked whether the facility would be built. Noting that he had voted for the tax breaks, Turek said: “We need the jobs and we need American manufacturing to return here, and return here to Iowa because this is a state that is uniquely hurting and struggling.” A campaign photograph credited to Kamil Krzaczyński/AFP/Getty Images showed Turek addressing supporters in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 29. Rob Sand, the Democratic nominee for governor, said: “A good deal for Iowans that gets the steel plant done would be a priority. But I’m not going to give away the farm to get there.”
Republican state legislator Blaine Watkins, who represented the area, said the mill would “completely change” Lee County, where Trump won almost two-thirds of the vote in 2024. Watkins said talks had been going on for seven or eight months and that he had a hard time believing the project would not come to fruition. “As far as I’m concerned, unless someone says we’re not going to do it, they’re doing it, and we’re negotiating like they’re going to do it,” he said.
Local trade unions, which might normally welcome a massive manufacturing project, remained cautious. Chris Tucker, international representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the union had endorsed Turek and Sand. “I want it to be real, right? I think it’d be great for the area. I think it’s great for the workers, but I’m skeptical,” Tucker said. He was also mindful of the saga of Foxconn, the electronics-manufacturing project Trump announced in neighboring Wisconsin during his first term and which later flopped.
Ryan Drew, president of the Des Moines-Henry County Labor Alliance, said the Oval Office presentation involving Trump, Miller-Meeks and Congresswoman Ashley Hinson gave him pause. Hinson was facing Turek in the Senate race. “You’ve got the three, either people up for election in the Congress or up for re-election … standing there in the Oval Office, somehow feeling they like they had a piece in this,” Drew said. “It’s just kind of the way it was unveiled in there that it kind of makes you wonder if it’s legitimate or not.”
Burlington, a short drive north from Wever, was the closest small city to the proposed plant. It was long known as the “Backhoe Capital of the World,” because excavators were first produced there. Earlier in the year, multinational manufacturer CNH closed the plant that made the machines, putting about 200 people out of work. Burlington Mayor Jon Billups said many who lost their jobs found work at other area manufacturers and welcomed the idea of a steel mill within commuting distance. “What happens that’s good for the region is good for Burlington, and what happens in Burlington is normally good for the region,” he said.
By November 2, Mesabi had not named the eastern Iowa site, no land-sale records had surfaced in Strom’s search, and no construction activity was visible around Wever. The county-Mesabi negotiations over the mill’s details were still underway. The proposal had a $1.4 billion tax-break package, White House employment and economic projections and a 2030 production target, but no site or construction. The questions left unanswered were where the negotiations would produce a site and which details the county and Mesabi would settle.