pavomag.com

As sudden and silent as the spread of kudzu and chinese privet covering Red Mountain, time can work to obscure our past from our view. As our city continues to move away from its industrial roots there are fewer and fewer touchstones remaining of that time when Birmingham was a national leader in iron and steel production. Hidden underneath vines, branches, and tons of dirt are the mine shafts where miners once raced into the heart of a mountain to extract minerals and ore, often losing lives in the process. For many of Birmingham's forgotten founding fathers, their stories are written in code through miles of mine shafts, their only memorial, concrete markers indicating where the mines once opened to the surface.   Read more...