In keeping with the tradition of the stockyards as one of Chicago’s leading tourist attractions, the Swift meatpacking plant threw open its doors and gave 12,000 employees and their families a tour. The throngs were treated to such exhibits as a house made of 35,000 pounds of Swift soap and, the Tribune wrote, a seven-piece band “made up of fat frozen porkers, dressed in white blouses and blue trousers.” (No, we couldn’t find a photo of that). And now, folks, who wants to see how sausage is made?
Onetime visitor who came away inspired by the stockyards’ “disassembly line”: Henry Ford.
Record number of hogs processed in the stockyards in one day: 190,000.
Estimated percentage of mad cow-wary Britons who are vegetarians: 10. Percentage of Americans: 2.8.
State that eats the most Spam canned meat per capita: Hawaii.
