Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in McKees Rocks, PA

McKees Rocks, nicknamed 'The Rocks,' is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on the south bank of the Ohio River just west of Pittsburgh.

The borough is named for Alexander McKee, a trader and Indian agent who was granted a 1,300-acre tract there in 1764 for his service in the French and Indian War; the name also refers to a rocky projection into the river at the site.

The name McKees Rocks appeared on an official deed in 1769, the year considered the borough's founding, and it was incorporated as a borough in 1892.

Long before Europeans arrived, the Adena and Hopewell peoples built one of the largest Native American burial mounds in Pennsylvania at McKees Rocks.

The borough grew into a major iron, steel, and railroad center, home to the Pressed Steel Car Company, locomotive and freight-car shops, and factories making everything from springs and chains to cigars.

In 1909 McKees Rocks was the site of one of the pivotal labor conflicts in American history, the Pressed Steel Car strike, in which some 5,000 workers led by Industrial Workers of the World organizers struck; the 'Bloody Sunday' clash of August 22, 1909 left at least a dozen people dead before the workers won concessions that September.

McKees Rocks' population surged from 6,353 in 1900 to a peak of about 17,000 in 1940, then fell steadily with industrial restructuring to 5,920 at the 2020 census.

McKees Rocks and neighboring Stowe Township are served by the Sto-Rox School District.

The borough is the birthplace of former Ohio governor John Kasich and of television pitchman Billy Mays.

McKees Rocks is compact and densely settled, fitting its population into about 1.1 square miles along the Ohio River.