In the industrial section of Birmingham, Alabama, on fifty acres of land, sits Sloss Furnaces, once one of the largest producers of pig iron in the world. Sloss Furnaces produced iron for nearly ninety years placing Birmingham, Alabama on the map. Today Sloss Furnaces is a National Historic Landmark.
The Early Years of Sloss Furnaces
It was after the Civil War, in 1881 when James W. Sloss constructed Sloss Furnaces on land that was donated by the Elyton Land Company. Harry Hargreaves, an engineer born in Europe, was placed in charge of the construction of Sloss Furnaces.
Thomas Whitwell, a British inventor, was hired by Harry Hargreaves to design the stoves for Sloss. These stoves were what supplied the hot-air blast for the new furnaces. Each of these stoves was sixty feet high and eighteen feet in diameter. The Whitwell stoves that were designed for Sloss were the first of this type built in Birmingham and were comparable to the equipment that was used in the North.
In April of 1882, Sloss went into blast operation. After the first year of production, Sloss produced and sold 24,000 tons of iron. When the Louisville Exposition was held in 1883, Sloss won a bronze medal for best pig iron.
In 1886 James W. Sloss retired and sold the company to a group of investors. Sloss began going through a rapid expansion and reorganized in 1899 as Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron. As additional furnaces and extensive mineral lands were being purchased, Sloss-Sheffield was rapidly becoming the second largest pig iron merchant in the Birmingham district and among the largest in the world. At this point Sloss owned seven blast furnaces, 1500 beehive coke ovens, land rich in coal and ore, five Jefferson County Coal mines, red and brown ore mines as well as quarries. By the time World War I began, Sloss-Sheffield was one of the largest pig iron producers in the world.
Sloss Furnaces at the Turn of the Century
As World War II was beginning in the late 1930’s, it gave way for the expanded market of iron and steel which in turn created jobs for the people of Birmingham. By 1941 as the United States entered into World War II, it was estimated that nearly one half of the work force worked in iron, steel and mining industries, of these workers more than two-thirds were African-American.
In the late nineteenth century, Birmingham’s population began to rise fast. As a result Sloss Furnaces as well as other industries began building low-cost housing. The 48 houses that were constructed, sat next to the site of Sloss Furnaces. These shotgun style houses were designed especially for black workers and their families and were referred to as “The Quarters”. Along with the houses, Sloss also set up a commissary and a doctor’s office. Also nearby Sloss Furnaces the children had access to Thomas Elementary School. This was excellent for these children since educational opportunities were so poor in the 1930’s and 1940’s. By doing this for their employee’s they felt this would cut down on absenteeism and give their employee’s a sense of being part of a family as well as a sense of security.
By the late 1950’s Sloss Quarters was dismantled due to the high cost of maintenance and repairs in order to keep these houses up to quality living standards. With higher wages coming into play and much improved transportation, this helped those that lived in Sloss Quarter’s to find housing elsewhere.
Technological changes began to hit Birmingham’s industrial economy in the 1960’s and 1970’s. As ductile iron and plastic pipe were on the rise as well as increasing reliance of scrap iron, the merchant pig iron industry was declining. As stricter pollution guidelines and foreign imports were increasing as well as mismanagement of the industry, a rapid decline began in the American Steel and Iron industry which included Sloss Furnaces.
It was in 1969 when the Jim Walter Corporation purchased Sloss Furnaces from U.S. Pipe and Foundry. Within two years, Sloss Furnaces, the oldest running blast furnace in Birmingham, Alabama shut their doors.
Sloss Furnaces in 1981 was named as a National Historic Landmark and reopened in September of 1983 as a museum in the city of Birmingham. The Sloss Furnaces Museum consists of two 400 ton blast furnaces and approximately forty other buildings. Although there are no remains of the original Sloss complex, there is one building still standing dating back to 1902. This building houses the eight steam-driven “blowing-engines” that provided the air for combustion in the furnaces. These engines date back to 1900-1902 and are unique and important because they helped in powering America’s Industrial Revolution.
Who is Haunting Sloss Furnaces?
Working conditions at Sloss Furnaces in the 19th Century was very hard as well as dangerous. Because of this many deaths occurred but there were only sixty deaths on record at the plant. Although it has been reported that there are many spirits that roam Sloss, there are two that are said to be seen and heard more than any.
The first spirit that is reported to walk within Sloss is Theophilus Jowers. The story is told that Jowers loved his job so much that he called one of the furnaces his “friend”. But Jowers wife thought differently. She would express her concerns to Jowers often. She was always scared that Jowers would get hurt badly or even worse, killed. He would tell his wife, “Don’t worry, the furnace is my friend. As long as there’s a furnace standing in this country, I’ll be there”. The story goes on to say that Jowers got up one morning and began his day just like days past. He clocked in at work and began his work day. As he was preforming his duties, he lost his balance and fell into one of the furnaces. Not long after Jowers death, reports began to surface of him being seen walking the catwalks as well as seeing him preforming his duties.
Another report of Jowers being seen was by his son, John Jowers. In 1927 John was driving over the viaduct with his son Leonard. As they crossed over he shut off the engine to the car so he and his son could watch the “Sloss as it was tapped”. As they watched, John quickly grabbed Leonard’s arm and pointed in the direction of the sparks. Just as Leonard looked, a man emerged from the sparks. John quickly explained to his son that “it was way too hot for a living man to walk that close to the sparks, so it had to be the ghost of his father Theophilus Jowers. The few people that are still alive today, state “Theophilus loved the work he did at Sloss Furnaces and that is why he remains here still to this day to continue his work and to make sure everything is done”.
The second spirit that is reported to walk within Sloss is James “Slag” Wormwood. The story is told that James or “Slag”, as his co-workers called him, was the foreman of the graveyard shift at Sloss Furnaces. There were many reports of how brutal “Slag” was to the workers he was in charge of. It was reported by some that Wormwood wanted to impress his supervisors so much that he forced his workers to undertake very dangerous duties in order to speed up production. During the summer months temperatures within the plant would reach 120* or more which made working in the plant very hard without any breaks for these men to cool down some. The men that worked under Wormwood worked in unbearable heat, low visibility and with a lack of sleep. These conditions combined made working the furnace a “living hell”.
As the story continued, Wormwood began his shift just as he did any other night. He began his night working around the furnace “Big Alice” which was the highest furnace at Sloss. It was believed that while he was working around “Big Alice”, the fumes from the methane gas over took him and he fell into the furnace. It was reported that Wormwood did not work at or around “Big Alice”; therefor many believed that some of the men that worked under him threw him into the furnace for payback because he was always such a tyrant. With only a handful of people still alive today that worked at Sloss, no one could confirm this to be really what happened.
Sloss Furnaces Today
Today Sloss Furnaces is a museum with its rich history in playing a part in America’s Industrial Revolution and is also the oldest remaining blast furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. Sloss has tours that run from Tuesday through Friday 10:00am to 4:00pm. Sloss also has “Sloss Fright Furnace” that opens every year for Halloween starting October 6th and runs through October 31st. If you ever get the chance to come to Birmingham, Alabama around Halloween, try to go through “Sloss Fright Furnace”, who knows you may just run into one of the souls that have been watching over Sloss Furnaces for the last 130 years.
Sources:
- frightfurnace.com/hauntings/history2.asp.
- Haunted Places to Go.
- Slossfurnaces.
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