The Magic City!

November 7 – 14, 2022

In March of 2021, we had reservations to stay at Oak Mountain State Park; however, a couple of days before we were going to arrive, we received a call advising us they had been hit by a tornado!  Needless to say, we made alternative travel plans!  Well, it may have taken us 20 months, but we finally made it there and it was certainly worth the wait!

Oak Mountain State Park is located about 20 miles south of Birmingham, Alabama, providing us the perfect opportunity to explore the city whose nick name is “The Magic City”.  What’s magical about Birmingham is the rapid speed at which this area was transformed from a few shacks with mud roads into the largest metropolitan city in Alabama!  It was founded in 1871 with the discovery of iron ore, limestone and coal in the immediate area (all three of the ingredients needed to make iron and steel). This quickly became a mining and steel producing area, making it the “Pittsburgh of the South”.  Immigrants flocked here for the jobs offered by the many pig iron producing furnaces that existed in Birmingham.  In addition to immigrants, sharecroppers also moved here, eager to find a better way of life.  While in a few ways the sharecropper families did find quality of life improvements, for the most part many of these hard workers found themselves in another form of slavery.   Seventy percent of the employees were blacks who were placed in the most difficult jobs with no chance of advancement.  Worse yet, many blacks were arrested on minor or false charges and then leased as convicts to the mining and iron ore industry.  The Convict-Lease system wasn’t abolished until 1928.  

Sloss Furnaces is the only remaining plant.  Although Sloss ceased operation and closed its doors in 1971, it’s still available as a National Historic Landmark to tour.  In fact, the Sloss Metal Arts Program is housed there, where artists teach classes and hold workshops, showing students the modern process of pouring iron.  All types of amazing metal art is created there.  We were able to see a few artists at work when we were on our self-guided tour!

Sloss is a popular location for photographers to get their creative juices flowing as well.  In fact, we spent some time talking to members of a Huntsville photography club who were there taking photos.  It turned out one of the photographers works for NASA and has a project aboard the Artemis I rocket!  Joe was project manager on the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (NEAS), and is excited for Artemis I to be launched.  His team developed a small spacecraft to investigate an asteroid.  It will use photons from the sun, which will impart momentum to the spacecraft’s sail to propel it to the asteroid.  You have to know, talking to a real ROCKET scientist was probably the highlight of this entire trip for my space geek hubby!  I just stood by as Dick questioned how this was possible as photons don’t have any mass and therefore, by the equation ρ=mv, this is impossible.  Apparently, Einstein knew better!  Photons are able to derive their momentum from their energy!  Honestly, it was like Dick was in a huge candy shop!

After leaving Sloss, we went to see the historic Alabama Theatre sign.  The marquee advertised that Straight No Chaser was performing that night!  Oh, the holidays are approaching!  🎶

Downtown Birmingham has Kelly Ingram Park, which offers a cell phone tour of monuments recognizing the important events of the Civil Rights protests that occurred in Birmingham.  All of it was incredibly moving, but most striking was the Four Spirits sculpture.  It was located on the corner, diagonally across from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.  On September 15, 1963 three KKK members set off an explosion in the church that killed four young girls.  It took three decades, but eventually those responsible for the blast were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. 

Birmingham’s icon is that of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forging.  You can’t miss the 56-foot statue that sits atop of a 124-foot pedestal on the peak of Red Mountain as you are coming into town!  Designed in 1904 for the St. Louis World’s Fair, it has been welcoming visitors from this location since the 1930’s.  With Birmingham’s ties to the iron ore furnaces, this is a perfect icon for the city!  It was fun exploring Vulcan Park and Museum, including going to the top of the pedestal Vulcan stands on.  The view of the city from this vantage was beautiful!

Across the city, we had several sitings of Vulcan.  Will the real Vulcan please stand up?  Oh, wait!  You already are!

Originally, Vulcan was going to be in a neighborhood park; however, the residents protested. not wanting a statue of a partially-clad man in their back yard!  Oh, how times have changed the definition of modesty!

Pepper Place hosts a market on Saturday mornings that features locally grown produce as well as local artisans.  At Pepper Place, you can’t miss the huge Dr. Pepper building which housed the production of Dr. Pepper syrup until 1980.  The morning we were there, we were entertained by local musicians while we enjoyed an egg burrito and hot cup of coffee for breakfast.  We found a metal worker who made so many wonderful art pieces.  We had to limit ourselves to choosing one of her steel angel ornaments, as space is so limited in our home-on-wheels.  We also met a young mother who immigrated four months ago from war-raged Ukraine.  We couldn’t resist supporting this woman (whose mom continues to live daily with the bombs Russia is raining down on the city) and purchased a couple of pieces of her delicious, homemade honey cake.  

Oak Mountain State Park in itself was an amazing park!  We found several fun trails to hike on.  Several boys had earned their Eagle badge with projects that we came across on the Tree Top Nature Trail.  

The first portion of this trail had various species of birds that had been injured and are being cared for.

Oak Mountain's Interpretive center is worth a stop at, especially on a rainy morning!  We learned about the geography of the park as well as the local wildlife residents.  Did you know there is a Brown Widow Spider?

Hiking the Eagles Nest trail was a bit of an adventure!  Although the park is named after the mighty oak tree, there are also plenty of pine trees.  The rocky base layer of this trail was often covered in pine needles with the foliage from deciduous trees covering the pine needles.  The combination made for quite the slippery situation!  On a particularly steep decline, I found myself in a squat, sliding down the rocky hill!  It was almost like sledding, only without the snow… or the sled!  It certainly brought a big smile accompanied by squeals of delight from me!  

The only sighting of an eagle we found on this trail!

King of the mountain!

Just across from our campsite was the camp host’s campsite.  Lou and his wife had NEVER had a S’more in their life!  How can that even be a thing?  We had to remedy that situation!  With Lou providing the firewood, we saw to it that we made them the perfect S’mores!

                    

We’ve spent a total of two weeks in Alabama.  One week in Huntsville and another week in Birmingham, both of which we completely enjoyed!  We can’t say enough for the southern hospitality we have experienced here.  Everyone is so very friendly and polite!  Yes, sir, the stars did fall on this wonderful state!

Up next:  Atlanta, Georgia