Birmingham

We stayed a couple of days in a park near Birmingham.  Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park is the perfect place to camp for Cindy as a member of a metals society!  This area has iron ore, coal, and limestone to make iron.  There are ironworks onsite that you can wander around plus several restored or reconstructed houses from the Civil War era including a blacksmith shop, a gristmill, and a slave cemetery.  The iron made at Tannehill was used for artillery and other items for the war.  There’s a small museum explaining the history with many of the pieces that were found in the area.

Continuing the metals theme in Birmingham meant we went to see the Vulcan cast iron statue and the Sloss Furnaces.  The statue was made for the 1905 St. Louis fair and now overlooks Birmingham. 

The Sloss Furnaces made iron from 1881-1971.  The actual furnaces were built in 1927; making these much more updated than the Civil War furnaces at Tannehill.  The funny part of this tour is that they had it set up for a haunted tour in the evenings.  Apparently Sloss Furnaces have been featured on one of the haunted shows on TV.  So, we had to walk around coffins and dead body pieces while touring the facility.

  

We also visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.   Very thought provoking.  There was a lot of information on the civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.  He recently passed away and public visitation will be held at this Institute this Sunday for him.

Camping in October has been interesting.  Many of the RV sites have been decorated for Halloween.  This campground has topped them with decorations.  Even though the big night for trick-or-treating is the 29^th, the sites are already decorated for a contest this weekend and the camp is full.  We were able to get one of the last sites that was available.