MERRILLVILLE | When Northwest Indiana's steel mills and refineries opened more than a century ago, word spread throughout Southern and Eastern Europe that workers were needed.

That industry "acted like a magnet. A huge contingent of Serbs poured into Northwest Indiana," Stephen McShane told an audience at the St. Sava Serb Fest on Sunday afternoon as part of the lecture and program "Immigrants: Serbs of Steel."

Curator of the Calumet Regional Archives at Indiana University Northwest, McShane introduced his new book, "Steel Giants," at the festival. The coffee table book, co-authored by IUN instructor Gary Wilk, contains historical photos and stories of the area's steel mills.

Those mills ran on mostly immigrant labor from Slavic nations, such as Serbia, McShane said. The wave of immigrants pouring into Northwest Indiana also helped build the big steel cities, including Gary and Indiana Harbor.

"By 1920, over 50 percent of Northwest Indiana was foreign-born," McShane said.

"There were 50 different nationalities living in these cities."

However, McShane said, the Serbian immigrants "were not welcomed at first. They were given the lousiest places to live and the worst jobs to do. They experienced discrimination and exploitation."

There was also a language barrier, as immigrants were encouraged to assimilate into American culture and speak English, he said. Yet, the Serbian immigrants rose to meet all of the challenges and still kept their heritage alive, McShane said.

"They maintained their language," McShane said. "They published newspapers in Serbian. They organized clubs. They opened grocery stores with food from the homeland so they could prepare dishes they remembered."

Remembering their stories also brings this era alive for descendants of those Serbian immigrants, said Nick Tarailo, owner of Bronko's Restaurant & Lounge in Crown Point. The city of Gary figured prominently in the dreams and stories of Serbian natives.

In one story Tarailo told, a family lands by ship in New York City from Serbia. The son finds a wet $1 bill on the rain-soaked street, but his mother scolds him for picking up the money because "if there are $1 bills in New York City, there are $10 bills in the streets of Gary." When he visits Serbia, Tarailo said people still talk about "rich Gary."

The St. Sava Serb Fest also featured an immigrant museum highlighting Serbia's folklore, music, dance and costumes. One corner of the museum contained dozens of photos of Karl Malden, a Gary native of Serbian descent, who died July 1 at age 97.

Fondly remembered by his birth name Mladen Sekulovich, Malden worked in the Gary steel mills before pursuing an acting career.