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| Sloss Furnaces - Birmingham, Alabama Founded 1881 |
The survival of Alabama has always been
rooted in the earth. Literally, built from the ground up, Alabama’s Iron
Industry carried the American industrial revolution to the forefront in the late
1800’s. Pig Iron has been forged in Birmingham since 1881 and the Sloss
furnaces were among the many foundries that made up the heart and soul of Alabama’s steel production capital. Sloss was established by James Withers Sloss.
He was born in Limestone County, Alabama on April 7, 1820 and became one of the
state’s wealthiest plantation owners. Starting out as a butchers apprentice at fifteen,
he later became a merchant, and in 1860 he was involved in the expansion and
construction of the L&N (Louisville and Nashville) Railroad and served as
its first president.
During the 1880’s, the production of
iron in Alabama flourished. Starting out as a post war industry, with cheap
black laborers, 68,995 tons grew into 706,629 tons of iron being produced at
the Birmingham foundries. Birmingham’s close proximity to rich iron mineral
resources helped make the city a leading manufacturer of iron in the United
States. Less than twenty steel and iron furnaces existed in Alabama at the time
and the great demand to rebuild the South (as well as northern industry) also required
great demand from the Alabama foundries.
In 1886, John W. Johnston purchased the
Sloss foundry for $2 million and built the “Sloss Quarters”. This allowed the
workman and their families to live together. The rent for these mill village
homes was: $2 for a single dwelling, $4 for a double dwelling and $6 for a
three dwelling. Forty eight of those family units were segregated for black
laborers. Many African American’s found the transition from farmer to the
industrial job line difficult but the pay was much better. Workers were paid in
“clacker”, a form of money that could only be used at the commissary and stores
located in the Sloss Quarters. Sloss also provided its workers with a doctor, and
labor and delivery services for expected mothers.
Many families living in the Sloss
villages found it relatively sound. Schools and education for black children
were almost unheard of in other parts of the South. However, the value of the
clacker declined and many families often owed more to the companies they worked
for than they could afford to pay back. This trapped families into having to
work for generations in order to pay off depths.
The iron industry was growing and
eventually became so massive that workers came from as far away as parts of
Europe to work in the Alabama steel mills. In 1900, Sloss produced 25% of the
nation’s iron and steel, far surpassing the steel industries in Pennsylvania.
After World War I, the great depression hit the South hard. Sloss would need to
upgrade to keep up with demands and a $625,000 renovation project was organized
in order to secure the future of the mill. These substantial renovations
enabled the foundry to produce 450 tons of Iron instead of 250 tons, adding the need
for more workman. The foundry was not unionized until July 17, 1933. At that time, the company was forced to pay laborers better wages and offer benefits.
During World War II, war time contracts
had the foundry working harder than ever. Cast Iron marine machinery, air plane
machinery, bombs and mortar shells were all made at Sloss. 60% of the grenades
used during WWII were cast at the Sloss foundries along with compressors,
brakes drums and camshafts for military vehicles. Other military issued
implements such as cooking and field equipment for United States troops were
also manufactured at Sloss Furnaces.
Conditions at Sloss were rigorous and
required a hearty workforce. Laborers who worked at Sloss were prone to
accidental deaths, loss of limbs and other misfortunes due to the hostile work
environment. Those who worked in the foundry also said the heat was nearly
unbearable. Temperatures inside the mill could reach well over 100 degrees
inside the casting shed and blower rooms. Every inch of the foundry felt like
the hottest corner of hell. Winter was hot, summer was hotter and the men who worked in these conditions were considered disposable at best.
Because accidents and death were so common
in Alabama’s steel mills, ghost stories of limbless workmen and spectral
figures have long been a facet in these now silent steel beasts. The spirits at
Sloss roam the furnace catwalks and engine room corridors, but there were other
foundries in the iron districts of Birmingham were accidents and death were
also common. These ghostly stories of the industrial dead are all now associated
with Sloss Furnaces but they didn’t all begin there.
A Birmingham newspaper article, dated
September 10, 1887 read:
“A Horrible Death – A
Workman Falls Into Alice Furnace Number One”
The Alice Furnace was located adjacent
to the Sloss City Furnace in 1887. It was the first within the Birmingham city
limits owned by Henry DeBardeleben and T.T. Hillman. Theophilus Jowers started
working there when he, and his wife, Sarah, moved to Birmingham with their small
children in search of work. On that September morning, Theo Jowers went to work
like always. He was preparing a new bell in the furnace and was holding the
rope attached to it when he suddenly slipped, plunging head first into the
furnace. The heavy metal bell managed to break his fall but the immense heat
from the furnace reduced his body to mush and ash almost immediately. Some of
his body parts managed to be fished out; his head, hip bones, and bowels.
In 1905 The Alice furnaces were torn
down. Years later, Theo’s son, John, took his son, Leonard Jowers to Birmingham
on business. As their 1927 Model T sputtered across the viaduct overlooking the
Sloss furnaces, John pulled over to the side of the bridge and John and his son
stepped out to watch the production. A hail of sparks burst from the
glowing furnace when John grabbed his son’s arm and pointed toward the stacks.
He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The glowing apparition of a man was
moving across the molten steel, engulfed in flame and smoke. As John gasp at
the sight of the apparition, it smoldered out and dissipated into a dense puff of black smoke. For
twenty years workmen at the Alice foundry told stories about the ghostly
sightings of this smoldering ghost, believing it was the spirit of Theo Jowers.
The Jowers ghost isn't the only spirit from the iron age of Birmingham. Another, more sinister story of a malicious specter only
known as, “Slag” is far worse than the watchful spirit of Theo Jowers. The
term, “Slag” (by steel industry standards) is the material that is melted off
or discarded during the smelting process. It’s essentially the garbage and
impurities left over from the pure ore that makes iron and steel.
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| The tunnels beneath the furnaces at Sloss were used to transport water to the multiple furnaces. The activity and phenomenon most associated with this location consists of hearing voices and even being touched. |
The legend of
Slag began at Sloss many years ago. According to the story, he was an
ill-mannered foreman with a temper hotter than any furnace in Birmingham. He
was rumored to have abused his workers by denying them water, breaks from the
heat, and even physically abusing some of them. This type of behavior most
likely earned him the name, “Slag” and it certainly seems fitting for such an
ominous character.
When Slag was in charge of the night
shifts at Sloss, he was often found walking on the catwalks, overseeing everything
the men did. He forced them to take dangerous risks and many lost their lives
under his supervision. As only karma can provide in a story like this, Slag was
pacing the catwalks on top of a very high furnace one evening and, like Theo
Jowers, lost his footing and fell into the furnace, burning him until nothing
was left. According to slag’s stories, not one shred of him could be found.
It’s likely the story was concocted out of pure myth and perhaps elements of
the Jowers legend but it doesn’t stop the sightings of spirits at Sloss.
Ghost hunters, historians, enthusiast
and urban adventurist, come to visit the National Historic Landmark every year.
Most come to visit and see the history behind Birmingham’s industrial age.
Others leave with more than they bargained for. Apparitions of the smoldering
ghosts aren't as common since the casting foundry was closed in the 1970’s.
However, the misty figure of a man walking on the furnace catwalks has been
seen over and over again by visitors during the day and at night. People
driving over the viaduct have also seen a white, floating apparition near the
top of the furnaces.
Spectral lights and glowing orbs are photographed in this
location by hundreds of ghost hunters every year and the haunting sounds of an
industrial workforce still echoes in the skeletal remains of the old steel
mill. Sloss may house these earth bound energies by harnessing their natural
power, much like the foundries of the previous age did in making and casting iron.
There’s a certain quality to Sloss that makes it unique to most haunted locations.
Its rusty steel exterior seems to shelter the decaying bowels of a fiery beast
that refuses to die. Sloss may not be a working foundry anymore, but you can't tell that to the men who worked and died there. They’re still making
sure the fires at Sloss stay hot, pouring molten steel and calling out orders,
even from the afterlife.
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| Photos captured by the Alabama Ghost Hunters (Alabama Paranormal Research Team) from Sloss during a paranormal investigation. |
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| A shadow anomaly that formed in the same location as the picture above (seconds after the first photo was taken). The image has been labeled as inconclusive evidence of the supernatural phenomenon associated with Sloss Furnace. |
