This important battery of charcoal blast furnaces ranked among the most productive in Alabama during the Civil War. The only three furnaces ironworks in the state during the war years, it was capable of producing 22 tons of pig iron a day for the Selma Arsenal and Gun Works.

Equipped with hot blast stoves and steam power to increase production, the Roupes Valley furnaces were among the most modern of their day. Experiments with red iron ore opened the door to iron manufacture in Birmingham.

A foundry and tan yard were also located here which made iron and leather products for the Confederate Army including kettles, ovens, hollow-ware, harness and canteens.

Furnace No. 1 was built by noted southern ironmaster Moses Stroup in 1859. William L. Sanders completed work on Furnaces 2 and 3 which went into blast in 1862-63 with financial assistance from the Confederate government.

This is also the site of one of Alabama's first bloomery forges erected in 1830 by Daniel Hillman. It made horseshoes, plows, and other agricultural products. The location is considered the birthplace of the Birmingham Iron and Steel District.

No other place in Alabama made iron for a as long as did these works prior to the Civil War.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior

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Show me all markers in:  McCalla, AL  |  Carter County  |  35111  |  Alabama  |  United States of America

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