Through the winter, Red Mountain Park ranger Eric McFerrin — armed with a machete, chain saw and camera — battled through thickets of privet and dense tangles of dead kudzu in search of remnants of Birmingham’s history.
Sometimes, he felt like he was in a Central American jungle looking for a lost Mayan temple, but McFerrin was only a few miles from downtown. And the buildings, mine entrances and industrial artifacts he rediscovered and documented were neither ancient nor exotic.
Visible behind Red Mountain Park administrative assistant Katie Sullivan is the hoist house at the Redding Shaft mine. Until recently, the Redding mine was lost deep in a dense field of kudzu and privet. The hoist house and other sites will be featured on upcoming guided hikes.
Instead, he is clearing a trail to Birmingham’s birth, steadily revealing details of history that for decades have been overgrown, covered up and largely forgotten. From sealed mine entrances to remnant railroad tracks to an ornate building housing machinery that lifted men and ore from deep underground, McFerrin is helping reconstruct the story the park hopes to tell.
From the 1860s to the 1960s, the iron ore mines of Red Mountain were a fundamental feature of Birmingham. From the founding of the city until World War II, the mines supplied the bloodstream of the region’s economy.
“Birmingham is here because of the iron in Red Mountain,” said David Dionne, Red Mountain Park’s executive director.
Now, a 1,100-acre stretch of Red Mountain west of I-65 is undergoing work to transform it into a public park. As people return to the mountain to enjoy scenic views and hike and bike along miles of trails through regenerated forests, the history of mining will be showcased throughout.
Detail of Park Location
McFerrin’s work is a key step in that process.
The park, controlled by the Red Mountain Park and Greenways Commission, is not yet open to the public.
And before roads, trails or parking lots are built, the historic assets need to be catalogued and protected. “The commission really made this a priority,” Dionne said.
McFerrin, an aircraft maintenance technician, had a long hobbyist interest in Birmingham’s industrial history.
When he was laid off, he went to work for the park. Dionne said McFerrin has been invaluable both for his knowledge and his passion for the project.
Besides the field work, McFerrin has spent hours doing archival research, studying corporate records and maps. Particularly valuable was a composite map of mine and structures drawn from various companies and historical periods. That map includes representations of the underground honeycomb of tunnels in the mountain’s ore seam and extending hundreds of feet below the surface throughout the Oxmoor Valley.
Just as important, McFerrin has interviewed miners and the children of miners, who lived — and, in some cases, still live — in mining communities on the hillside.
The more he found out about how the mines and mining approaches changed over time, how the trains moved around the mountains, the more he could “make sense of the mountain.”
With the help of his son, Trey, and volunteers Jeff Newman, Barrie Woods, William Eiland and Lee Sorrell, McFerrin cleared and photographed mining sites up and down the park property.
A historical photo of the Redding shaft mine, which operated between 1917 and 1927. The hoist house, in the foreground, housed huge winches that pulled cars loaded with men or iron ore to and from the depths of the mines.
Highlights include:
The Eureka 2 mine, also known as Ishkooda No. 13. Eureka 2 opened in 1873. Its sister mine, Eureka 1, fed the Oxmoor Furnace nearby. Opened in 1863, Eureka 1 was the first commercial mine in Birmingham and its ore helped supply the Confederacy until the furnace was destroyed by Union troops.
Redding No. 1 and No. 2: Originally opened in the 1870s, the Redding mines supplied ore for Birmingham’s first blast furnace, the Alice Furnace. Associated with the Redding mines is a plant on the north side of the mountain where ore was crushed before being loaded on trains. The plant, made up of structures built with cut stone, wasn’t on a map. When McFerrin found it, the vegetation was so dense he had to hack a trail just to shimmy sideways along the edge of it.
The Redding shaft mine: One of the few mines on Red Mountain that descended straight down, this one to a depth of 384 feet. The shaft mine operated between 1917 and 1927. Miners and materials were raised up and down in cars drawn by large cables. The machinery that operated the cable system was housed in a building the McFerrin team cleared. The building will be featured on the spring tours.
Along with locating structures, park organizers are learning more about the miners’ communities.
“You not only have the mining history, but you also have the cultural history,” Dionne said.
Mining was not just a job. Miners raised families, socialized, lived and died in the company towns then remote from the city.
“People are connected spiritually and emotionally to the mines,” he said. “This property that was so important in their lives has been returned to them.” McFerrin said it’s not just the structures they are interested in documenting; it’s also the story of the people.
“The public is fascinated with our mining history,” he said “We want to honor the guys that worked here.”
SPRING HIKES
Red Mountain Park is not yet open to the public, but the Friends of Red Mountain Park are hosting three spring preview hikes.
• Sunday, April 19, 2 p.m.
• Saturday, May 16, 2 p.m.
• Sunday, June 14, 2 p.m.
• These hikes will follow new routes and will include stops at newly uncovered historical sites.
• All hikes leave from the culde- sac at the end of Frankfurt Drive, off Lakeshore Parkway.
• For more information, go to www.redmountainpark.org
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
• Organizational meeting: Java and Jams, 321 20th St. North, downtown. Tuesday, April 14, 5:30 p.m.
• Trail construction day: Saturday, April 18. Frankfurt Drive cul-de-sac, 2 p.m.
