Society for Industrial Archaeology (SIA)
Southern Chapter Field Trip, March 6, 2010
The Chapter took a field trip to Ruffner Mountain Mine sites
Our tour guide for the trip was Marty Schulman, a man of many talents. Marty was assisted by Bob Yuill who has also done extensive research and field mapping at Ruffner. Ruffner Mountain is a part of Red Mountain, and was mined for iron ore as well as limestone. The Historic American Building Survey - Historic American Engineering Record (HABS HAER) project has done some documenting of Ruffner, and there is information posted on the Library of Congress website under HABS HAER. Some of this material is presented below as noted.
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| We "walked in" to the mine sites along the former L&N Mineral Branch roadbed. | Chris Burch, visiting from the UK, talks with visitor Marv Clemons, Chairman of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society |
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| Most of our group along the trail from the crusher site. | |
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| Some of the group stayed after lunch and went into the #1 mine, 1st left heading | Marty Schulman "crushing rocks" (symbolically) atop the great crusher |
| HABS HAER page on Ruffner #1 from Library of Congress |
HABS HAER Summary History from Library of Congress [Note that one footnote refers to Yuill !] |
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Marty paints faces, including his own, with red "dye rock" from locale iron ore (Can you sing "I don't wanna grow up...") |
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If you are interested in joining the Southern Chapter of the SIA, and working to learn about industrial history of the Birmingham District, please contact the Chapter through this website. Email regarding Southern Chapter SIA