Iron Works of the Old Southwest
During the pioneering years of the Mississippi Territory, settlers were forced to rely on manufacturers from the North to supply iron for hinges, door knobs, shutter hardware, cookware, firearms, etc….via the river trade along the Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and other navigable rivers in the Old Southwest. The iron material was so precious in those early days that when a building burned or was torn down, the nails were carefully salvaged for a new build.
Inevitably, those rough and tough entrepreneurs decided it could be beneficial, and certainly profitable, to produce those items locally instead. Therefore, circa 1810 the ironworks process was established along the Natchez Trace. But the operation was laborious, extremely time-consuming, and physically backbreaking work. By 1840 hardly any noteworthy progress had been made by a consistent facility. However by the 1860’s during the Civil War, Alabama had a significant number of furnaces processing the valuable raw material into useful iron products. One of those facilities was at Brierfield.
Brierfield, or aka Bibb, Furnace ca. 1907
Brierfield, or aka Bibb, Furnace ca. 1907
As an architectural oddity, today’s curious “pile of bricks” at Brierfield, Alabama might have gone unnoticed and lost to nature were it not for the State bringing the area under the park service in 1976. Brierfield (also known as Bibb Furnace) lies in Bibb County about 45 minutes SW of the Birmingham area, perhaps named in honor of Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s Mississippi plantation of the same name. Imagine the worker’s hands that fabricated each of the many thousands of bricks used here. And then consider the fatigued men that painstakingly positioned them, one at a time about 150 years ago, creating walls 20+ feet thick! The brick heap is almost a miniature Egyptian pyramid with its own mysterious and ingenious properties inside and out! Such a unique place tends to pull at the little boy in me (what little is left) with an overwhelming urge to explore, but I did not try to crawl inside … this time.
My wife and I visited the remote State Park in April 2014, and we became quickly engaged in the history of the peculiar place. Aesthetically speaking however, the effort to save the brick ruins has resulted in a huge pre-engineered metal roof canopy that shrouds the masonry edifice. Well, let’s just say it’s not a very attractive attempt at preservation, and I therefore cropped it from the photo below. Despite its current hideous protective metal cloak, the brick furnace was quite a marvelous structure in its mid-18th century heyday.
The short story, as everyone knows, is that the South lost its battle for independence. Consequently this furnace facility, which provided iron for the Confederacy during the war, was lost as well. As a result, the South fell behind its Northern brethren in the progressing technology of the coal and steel business. It eventually closed for good after an accidental explosion on Christmas Eve of 1894.
Brierfield ruins as of April 2014 – photo courtesy Tracy Ward
Thankfully for those financially dependent upon the industry, the iron & steel trades did not die with Brierfield’s closure. The State of Alabama recognized it held a geological resource that would prove important to the Industrial Age and growth of the United States. In fact, after the Civil War, Alabama (Birmingham in particular) became one of the nation’s leading producers of iron and steel in the United States:
“Unique geological conditions provided the district with closely associated and abundant deposits of iron ore, coal, limestone, and dolomite. These were the raw materials essential for making iron and steel, and at some locations within the district, deposits were only a few miles apart. This lucky geological arrangement resulted in the lowest raw-material assembly costs in the United States and allowed the district to grow as rapidly, in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, as Pittsburgh and Chicago.”
(Encyclopedia of Alabama)
Blast Furnace ruins in Alabama:
Cedar Creek – ca. 1815
Cane Creek – ca. 1840
Shelby – ca. 1849
Round Mountain – ca. 1852
Hale Murdock – ca. 1859
Tannehill – ca. 1859
Brierfield – ca. 1862
Cornwall – ca. 1862
Oxford – ca. 1863
Oxmoor – ca. 1863
Salt Creek – ca. 1863
Knight – ca. 1863
Irondale – ca. 1863
Janney – ca. 1864
Location map of Brierfield Furnace from the 1974 National Register application
Unfortunately for the Birmingham and Bessemer economy, this “iron rush” didn’t last forever. Pollution and Energy regulations increased political and social pressure on the industry, and it began to falter beginning in the 1970’s. But the remnants of this period are scattered around the State. Each historic facility recalls a fascinating era of American history that exhibits and saves for future generations – a custom designed blend of architecture, engineering, geology, science, chemistry, metallurgy, handmade craftsmanship, politics and social change … along with the clever ingenuity that helped make America great.
References:
http://www.loc.gov/collections/historic-american-buildings-landscapes-and-engineering-records/
A Way through the Wilderness; William C. Davis; 1995
D. Tracy Ward, Architect
Originally prepared 2014 – Reedited August 2018 – DTW’s Blog #0026
Our Original Posts, including images when applicable, are copyrighted © 1993-2018 by D. Tracy Ward and Benchmark Design, PC. God bless America! Treasure Liberty always and pass it on! “Architecture aims at Eternity. Architecture has its political Use; publick Buildings being the Ornament of a Country; it establishes a Nation, draws People and Commerce; makes the People love their native Country, which Passion is the Original of all great Actions in a Common-wealth.” [CHRISTOPHER WREN, Parentalia]
