The furnaces are known as a hotbed of paranormal activity and were investigated for the first time in 2005 by Ghost Chasers International out of Kentucky. It is Wormwood’s angry spirit that is responsible for pushing employees. Like Jowers and the pregnant girl, Wormwood supposedly fell to his death into one of the furnaces, though it is suspected that he was really pushed by an angry employee. The other “apocryphal”-as Alan Brown describes him-spirit is that of a fiendish foreman named James “Slag” Wormwood. A white deer that has been seen on the grounds is believed to be the spirit of a pregnant girl who committed suicide by throwing herself into the furnace. Two more spirits are believed to be in residence at this site, but less historically based. The now grown son took his son for a drive over the First Avenue Viaduct and there, while watching the action at the furnace, they observed a man walking through the showers of sparks and flames. Just walking slow and looking around like he was checking to make sure everything was all right.” Windham describes the first time that Jowers’ son saw his father’s spirit in 1927. Kathryn Tucker Windham quotes one former employee, “We’d be getting ready to charge the furnace, and we’d see something, something like a natural man walking around on the hearth. Jowers’ death remains one of the most spectacular and grisly, though many more men died throughout the time that the furnaces were in operation.Īfter Jowers’ death, his spirit was observed by co-workers. Some of his remains-his head, bowels, two hip bones and some ashes-were fished out of the molten iron. In 1887, Theophilus Jowers, assistant foundryman at the Alice furnace (one of the first furnaces on this site) fell to his death into the molten iron in the furnace. There is always a chance for death in industrial sites, even more so around molten metal in a furnace. Photo by Timjarrett, courtesy of Wikipedia. Their efforts paid off and the facility is open as a museum and events facility. This facility closed in 1971 and local preservationists began work to save the facility. The oldest building on this site dates to 1902 with much equipment installed and added in later years. While the facility opened in 1882, nothing remains of the original furnaces here. Birmingham was built on industrial facilities like this producing iron during the latter half of the 19 th and into the 20 th centuries. Perhaps one of the most iconic haunted places in the whole state, this National Historic Landmark site is iconic of Birmingham’s history. Still, the city has some very interesting ghostlore including the iconic Sloss Furnaces. When Alan Brown wrote his 2009, Haunted Birmingham, he noted that this city’s ghostlore “is not nearly as rich as that found in much older cities.” Certainly, Birmingham is the youngest of Alabama’s large cities, having only been founded in 1871. So here are a few more locations to add to the Birmingham list. I’ve previously covered two magnificent Birmingham theatres: the Alabama and Lyric and the Tutwiler Hotel, in addition to the Linn-Henley Library which I covered in the Haunted Alabama entry. After my recent entry on Alabama, I had a comment on Facebook, “Interesting, but there’s more than the library in Birmingham…” Indeed.
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