This week’s episode isn’t for the faint of heart. Zoey brings us the bloody history of The Sloss Furnaces, a national historic landmark in Birmingham, Alabama that once produced iron. The town of Birmingham was built almost overnight when Colonel James Withers Sloss, a merchant and railroad man, convinced he L&N Railroad company to merge the North and South lines through Jones Valley.
Jones Valley was selected as the home for Birmingham because it had all the raw ingredients needed to make iron within a 30 mile radius, including iron ore, coal, limestone, dolomite, and clay. The time period was after the Civil War when the need for iron, and later steel was at an all time high. So company’s like James Sloss’ Sloss Furnace Company grew very quickly.
However, they didn’t care too much about their employee’s safety. Around 60 men died while the Furnaces were in operation, and about 47 of them were under the watch of the night manager who was known as Slag. Slag mistreated the employees more than anyone else, and he, too, found his death at the property. People, including Zoey, believe that Slag refused to leave the factory.
There are more ghosts, though, and a visit from our favorite paranormal investigation team. But first, Robin brings us a Something Spooky to talk about the Megalodon shark.
Sources:
- https://www.slossfurnaces.com/history/
- https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/ghost-adventures/articles/sloss-furnaces-haunted-history
- https://www.steelmasterusa.com/news/sloss-furnaces-century-old-birmingham-landmark-is-filled-with-history-and-horror/
- https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-bourbon-news-sloss-furnace-horrible/1263810/
- http://lastgasps.com/page40.html
- https://thelittlehouseofhorrors.com/sloss-furnaces/
- https://industry.travelsouthusa.com/get-your-scare-while-discovering-alabama’s-place-industrial-revolution
- https://www.appalachiabare.com/if-you-kill-me-i-will-haunt-you-appalachian-hauntings/
- https://frightfind.com/the-sloss-furnaces/
- Season 1 Ep 5 of Ghost Adventures
Something Spooky sources:
“Megalodon: the truth about the largest shark that ever lived” by Josh Davis, Natural History Museum: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/megalodon–the-truth-about-the-largest-shark-that-ever-lived.html.
“The Megalodon: Carcharocles megalodon” by Danielle Hall (reviewed by Hans Sues), Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/sharks-rays/megalodon.
“Megalodon: the superpredator that ate its siblings in the womb” by Michael Marshall, BBC, Aug. 2, 2023: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230801-megalodon-the-superpredator-that-ate-its-siblings-in-the-womb.
Haunted Hospitality Podcast 