Hauntings are everywhere in the Appalachian Mountains. Whether one believes in such things or not, a person cannot deny the shivers in the darkness when an owl hoots a soothing sound of wisdom, or the early morning sounds of a house “settling” as it pops and cracks at one end of the house while you’re on the opposite end. I’ve had my own encounters – some are really quite funny. Others, I consider very real.

I’ll share one of these stories with you. My father was bedridden and dying of cancer and I stayed with him and my mother for awhile to take care of them both. I’ll tell you, the house was long and quiet on both ends. Well, early one morning, I popped into a chair to read a book. I sat at one end of the house while my parents slept in the living room at the other end. After a few minutes, I cocked my ear. I heard a multitude of voices, what seemed like hundreds of people. I couldn’t make out the words, but they were certainly voices. Like the largest picnic or family reunion one could ever imagine. I heard music of all kinds: bagpipes, fiddles, drums, guitars. I jerked up from the chair and raced to my parents. Silence. The room was dark. No television and no radio played. My parents were both sleeping. With a furrowed brow and my eyes askew, I walked back to my book and read a little. I cocked my ear again. The same multitude, the same voices, the same music. Once again, I raced to my parents. Once again, nothing. My father was awake by that point. I looked at him and said,

“I heard voices. And music. They were talkin’ up a storm.”

My father looked at me and said,

“I hear them awwwl the time.”

This little story leads me to our newest series: Appalachian Hauntings. Join me for the next several posts and we’ll venture to find the ghostly, the uncanny, the mysterious in many of our Appalachian states. We’ll dive into a few Civil War stories; encounter spirits searching for lost loves; traverse through a few spooky sanitariums; fight off a demon dog; creep through a haunted house or three; dodge some vengeance-seekers, and visit a few graves. I’ve compiled a system here, though I am no expert on the paranormal by no means. I’m just going by my gut. An “eerie factor” garners from one to five ghosts, with five being the eeriest. A “danger factor” has levels low, medium, high, and extremely high. Now that we’re settled on that, let’s fire up the EVP and turn on that weird night vision equipment. Our first stop is Alabama.

 

ALABAMA

Rocky Hill Castle –  Lawrence County

Background:

Rocky Hill Castle belonged to James Edmonds Saunders and sat in the middle of about 640 acres.¹⁾Jennifer. 2016. “The Story Behind this Haunted Castle in Alabama Will Chill You to the Bone.” Only in Your State. Oct 24. The structure was designed in a combination of Greek and Italian-style architecture by a French architect²⁾According to The Birmingham Age-Herald, July 8, 1908, Saunders hired an Italian architect and built circa 1830s by Saunders’ slaves.³⁾Harper, Walter. 1910. “That Reminds Me.” Birmingham Age-Herald, Mar 2. Saunders fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War as first staff officer to Nathan Bedford Forrest.⁴⁾Harper, Walter. 1910. “That Reminds Me.” Birmingham Age-Herald, Mar 2. During the Civil War, Rocky Hill Castle was a meeting place for Confederate military leaders,⁵⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1995. Historic Haunted America. New York: Tom Daugherty Associates. “a refuge for rebel soldiers,”⁶⁾Hauck, Dennis William. 1996. Haunted Places: The National Directory. New York: Penguin Books. and a makeshift hospital.⁷⁾Jennifer. 2016. “The Story Behind this Haunted Castle in Alabama Will Chill You to the Bone.” Only in Your State. Oct 24. Some soldiers were reportedly buried on the Saunders’ property.⁸⁾Hauck, Dennis William. 1996. Haunted Places: The National Directory. New York: Penguin Books.

Also during the Civil War, Saunders’ home allegedly participated in “illicit slave trading” via an underground tunnel that spanned “from the nearby Tennessee River to the mansion’s basement.”⁹⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1995. Historic Haunted America. New York: Tom Daugherty Associates. Once the slaves came off the ship, they were ushered through the tunnel, straight to Saunders’ cotton fields. Further, the six-story medieval tower that sits adjacent to the home, “complete with battlements” and turret,¹⁰⁾Grey, Orrin. 2016. “A Ghost in the Room: The Haunted History of Rocky Hill Castle.” The Lineup. March 25. purportedly served as the slave quarters. Saunders also used it as a watchtower where he could bark orders and keep his ever-watchful, domineering eye on the land.¹¹⁾Grey, Orrin. 2016. “A Ghost in the Room: The Haunted History of Rocky Hill Castle.” The Lineup. March 25.

James Edmonds Saunders lost his fortune after the war and any future business endeavors failed. He died in 1896 and the home passed to his descendants.¹²⁾The Birmingham Age-Herald. 1908. “Courtland Will Have Schoolhouse,” July 8. After the last Saunders left, the home was purchased several times. After some decades, neglect, vandalism, and graffiti left the home in bad shape. The last owner had the house demolished in 1961 because it was beyond saving.¹³⁾Jennifer. 2016. “The Story Behind this Haunted Castle in Alabama Will Chill You to the Bone.” Only in Your State. Oct 24.

Paranormal Experiences:

• Saunders refused to pay the French architect he hired because he believed the bill was “exorbitant.” As one might imagine, the Frenchman was furious. After he died, he became the first ghost to haunt Rocky Hill Castle. He was reportedly seen in the cellar “hammering away at the foundation.” Even neighbors heard the incessant banging. The sound stopped when the house was torn down.¹⁴⁾Hauck, Dennis William. 1996. Haunted Places: The National Directory. New York: Penguin Books. Plumbing was likely installed almost a century after the home was built. Was it a faulty pipe system? Or the architect’s ghost?
• Some people claim they heard “the sounds of clanking chains” coming from the home.¹⁵⁾Jennifer. 2016. “The Story Behind this Haunted Castle in Alabama Will Chill You to the Bone.” Only in Your State. Oct 24.
• The last Saunders family member to live in the home was James Edmonds Saunders’ grandson, Dr. Dudley Saunders. He and his family encountered many hauntings. One occasion caused them to flee the house for good. Mrs. Dudley Saunders grew frustrated by the activity. She stood in the middle of her bedroom one day and challenged the entity, demanding it either “speak up or hold their peace.” A phantom voice then shouted in her ear:

“Madam, I’m right here!”¹⁶⁾Grey, Orrin. 2016. “A Ghost in the Room: The Haunted History of Rocky Hill Castle.” The Lineup. March 25.

• The family reportedly packed up as many belongings as they could and fled within two hours. They never returned.¹⁷⁾Hauck, Dennis William. 1996. Haunted Places: The National Directory. New York: Penguin Books.
• A woman’s ghost has been seen. She has been dubbed either the Woman in Grey or the Woman in Blue, depending on the source. Two differing stories are linked to her.

1. She was seen walking up and down the stairs and roaming the wine cellar searching for her lost love.¹⁸⁾Jennifer. 2016. “The Story Behind this Haunted Castle in Alabama Will Chill You to the Bone.” Only in Your State. Oct 24.

2. The lady supposedly lived in Rocky Hill Castle in the late 1920s. She drove across a bridge near the estate with her two children. Rain had caused the creek to rise and the bridge collapsed as a result. She and the children were drowned. They have often been seen “on the road leading from the creek to Rocky Hill Castle, even after the remnants of the mansion” disappeared.¹⁹⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1995. Historic Haunted America. New York: Tom Daugherty Associates.

• An African American man lived in a small cabin near the castle and “on several occasions” heard a piano playing in the abandoned home. He attributed it to “mice running up and down the keyboards.”²⁰⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1995. Historic Haunted America. New York: Tom Daugherty Associates.

Eerie factor: 

Danger factor:  Low

If ghosts still exist at Rocky Hill, reports suggest they aren’t malevolent. It’s likely that Saunders’ eventual pauper status and the destruction of the home eased some of the slaves’ spirits. No soldiers’ spirits were reported, so one might assume they rest in peace. Though encounters with the Blue/ Grey Lady still occur, she doesn’t appear to be a threat.

Gallery:

Colonel James Edmonds Saunders - Find-a-Grave

Photographer Alex Bush, March 26, 1935 Library of Congress

Rocky Hill Castle in disrepair - Wikimedia

Alex Bush, Photographer, March 26, 1935, Winding stairs

Alex Bush, photographer March 26, 1935, Library of Congress. Look closely at the right of the picture and you'll see a haunting image.

 

Pickens County Courthouse

Background:

Henry Wells was an African American freed slave accused (along with his friend, Bill Burkhalter) of burning down the Pickens County Courthouse in 1876. Why he was accused of doing so is debatable. According to Michael Norman and Beth Scott, authors of Haunted America, Carrolton historian Dan Turnispeed stated that Henry Wells was “accused of raping a white woman” and “was allegedly told that if he burned the courthouse all the records of his arrest would be destroyed . . .” However, the February 6, 1878 edition of the newspaper West Alabamian states that Wells wrote his confession, saying Burkhalter, who’d been in trouble with the law before for burglary, persuaded him to break into the courthouse and steal money. Strange thing is, Wells could neither read nor write. So, the “confession” validity is questionable. He even signed the confession with an X.²¹⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1994. Haunted America. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

This fire was the second in Pickens County courthouse history. The original structure had burned down during Wilson’s Raid in the Civil War, a little over ten years prior.²²⁾Explore Southern History. 2017. “The Face in the Window, Carrollton Alabama: Alabama’s Ghost in the Window.” Explore Southern History. May 19.

After the 1876 fire, the two men fled. The courthouse was rebuilt after about two years. Wells was arrested on January 28, 1878, but not without incident. He tried to flee and “was shot twice in both legs.”²³⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1994. Haunted America. New York: Tom Doherty Associates. Burkhalter was also caught shortly after.

Once arrested, an angry mob gathered outside the jail and demanded the sheriff release the pair for a lynching, because many “valuable papers and deeds were lost in the fire.”²⁴⁾From Tim Reid’s “Alabama Ghost Stories: The Face in the Courthouse Window.” CBS 42., quoting Pickens County Courthouse caretaker and local historian, Gordo Mayor Craig Patterson The sheriff refused. Instead, he placed the men in the attic. Storm clouds gathered all around.²⁵⁾Ghost Hauntings. n.d. “Pickens County Courthouse.” Wiki. Accessed Oct 2021. Wells reportedly moved near the closed attic window and yelled:

“I am an innocent man. If you kill me, I will haunt you for the rest of your lives!”²⁶⁾Ghost Hauntings. n.d. “Pickens County Courthouse.” Wiki. Accessed Oct 2021.

At that moment, a massive lightning bolt struck near the courthouse, flashed across Wells’s face, and caused his “horrified expression” to be “permanently emblazoned on the garret window glass.”²⁷⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1994. Haunted America. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

Wells’s fate isn’t clear.²⁸⁾Burkhalter, though, was convicted of arson and died in prison. (Haunted America, 1994) Different sources offer different endings. Some sources says the mob did end up lynching both men.²⁹⁾Jennifer. 2016. “The Story of Alabama’s Ghost in the Window is Bizarre and Terrifying.” Only in Your State. Aug 7.³⁰⁾Ghost Hauntings. n.d. “Pickens County Courthouse.” Wiki. Accessed Oct 2021. The consensus is that he died from the gunshot wounds to his legs.³¹⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1994. Haunted America. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

The window seems to be somewhat charmed and untouchable. Any attempts to remove the image have been unsuccessful. Even when a hailstorm knocked out all the courthouse windows, the window with Wells’s face remained. The window has been analyzed by several experts. The Atlanta Center for the Continuing Study of the Shroud of Turin photographed the image in the mid-1980s and sent the images to both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and a West Germany laboratory. The belief is that the lightning strike caught Wells’s image like an x-ray.³²⁾Norman, Michael and Beth Scott. 1994. Haunted America. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.

Skeptics say the event didn’t happen because windows weren’t installed in the building until after Wells’s death. Pickens County court records, however, indicate that the Wells incident happened a few weeks after the windows were installed. Scientists have also tried to debunk the idea that lightning can etch an image into glass.³³⁾Explore Southern History. 2017. “The Face in the Window, Carrollton Alabama: Alabama’s Ghost in the Window.” Explore Southern History. May 19.

Paranormal Experiences:

• Some say Wells’s ghost walks through the courthouse, especially during storms.
• Some people swear they feel his presence or hear him speaking.
• A grey mist has also been seen.³⁴⁾Ghost Hauntings. n.d. “Pickens County Courthouse.” Wiki. Accessed Oct 2021.

Eerie factor:   

Danger factor:  Low

The spirit doesn’t appear to be malevolent at all. The face in the window has allowed Wells’s story to be told for decades.

Gallery:

Pickens County Courthouse sign - Wikimedia

Faint image resembles a face in the window (right, arrow) of Pickens County Courthouse - Wikimedia

 

Dead Children’s Playground – Morgan and Limestone Counties

Background:

The playground is adjacent to Maple Hill Cemetery, Alabama’s largest and oldest cemetery. The cemetery began in about 1822, covers almost 100 acres of land, and inters 80,000 persons. The playground sits on land that used to be a limestone quarry,³⁵⁾Mysterious Facts. n.d. “Mystery of Dead Children’s Playground in Huntsville, Alabama – Is it Haunted?” Mysterious Facts. Accessed Oct 2021. and was intended to be a place where children could play while parents paid their respects.³⁶⁾USC. n.d. “Dead Children’s Playground.” USC Digital Folklore Archives. Accessed Oct 2021. Limestone surrounds the playground on three sides.

So, why is the playground called “Dead Children’s Playground”? A few reasons. First, the 1918 flu epidemic ran hard and fast through Huntsville, “arriving on September 25 and sweeping through the town in ten days.” The Birmingham News from October 13, 1918 reports:

A desperate situation exists in Huntsville growing out of the Spanish influenza epidemic. All druggists, physicians, and prescription clerks, except one, have been stricken with the disease, and a distressing appeal reached Montgomery last night in telegrams for immediate help for the stricken city.³⁷⁾Ghostly World. n.d. “Dead Children’s Playground.” Ghostly World. Accessed Oct 2021.

Many children died during the epidemic and they were buried in the cemetery near the playground.³⁸⁾Kazek, Kelly. 2020. “The Legend of Alabama’s ‘Dead Children’s Playground’.” Alabama Life & Culture. Oct 8. The second reason could be an urban legend, but deserves some investigation and certainly some notice. In 1960, children started disappearing in Huntsville, Alabama. The community believed the children were murdered. Some time later, a person walking through the abandoned quarry found a small skull. Authorities investigated and found several skeletons, “along with small corpses from fresher murders.”³⁹⁾Mysterious Facts. n.d. “Mystery of Dead Children’s Playground in Huntsville, Alabama – Is it Haunted?” Mysterious Facts. Accessed Oct 2021.

The murderer was never caught, though the belief is he was “a serial killer” who may have lived in one of the limestone quarry’s abandoned mine shafts.⁴⁰⁾Lee, Avis. 2021. “Dead Children’s Playground – The Most Haunted Park in America.” Mysteries Unsolved. Jan 28. Evidence on the children’s bones and bodies indicate brutality, malnourishment, and wounds. And “signs of a prolonged detainment” were seen.⁴¹⁾Mysterious Facts. n.d. “Mystery of Dead Children’s Playground in Huntsville, Alabama – Is it Haunted?” Mysterious Facts. Accessed Oct 2021. After the bodies were discovered, the disappearances stopped. Several of the children were buried in the adjacent cemetery.⁴²⁾Mysterious Facts. n.d. “Mystery of Dead Children’s Playground in Huntsville, Alabama – Is it Haunted?” Mysterious Facts. Accessed Oct 2021.

In 2007, the cemetery needed more room for graves, so the City of Huntsville decided to tear down the playground to solve the situation. They destroyed the playground in one night. The public was livid and protested until the City built a new playground on the site.

Paranormal Experiences:

• Swings move by themselves. Unseen children laugh. Orbs of light have been photographed. Ghostly children have also been photographed. People have witnessed ghosts.⁴³⁾USC. n.d. “Dead Children’s Playground.” USC Digital Folklore Archives. Accessed Oct 2021.
• Children’s’ spirits allegedly come out late at night, from about 10:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.⁴⁴⁾Mysterious Facts. n.d. “Mystery of Dead Children’s Playground in Huntsville, Alabama – Is it Haunted?” Mysterious Facts. Accessed Oct 2021.
• Some people have seen “dust rise up as if someone jumped off of the swing.” The children’s disembodied voices have been heard. Photographic images of “floating cold ghosts” have also been captured.⁴⁵⁾Ghostly World. n.d. “Dead Children’s Playground.” Ghostly World. Accessed Oct 2021.
• Children’s footsteps running. A woman’s voice has been heard as well.⁴⁶⁾Lee, Avis. 2021. “Dead Children’s Playground – The Most Haunted Park in America.” Mysteries Unsolved. Jan 28.
• The Alabama Paranormal Association investigated the site in June, 2011. They found the playground to be “a hotbed of activity.”⁴⁷⁾A Paranormal Thing. n.d. “The Dead Children’s Playground.” A Paranormal Thing. Accessed Oct 2021.

The University of Southern California investigated the playground and determined the experiences to be “tricks of the mind common to anyone entering a cemetery at night and expecting to be spooked.”⁴⁸⁾USC. n.d. “Dead Children’s Playground.” USC Digital Folklore Archives. Accessed Oct 2021.

Eerie Factor:           

The creepiness can’t be denied. There’s a reason horror movies use children’s voices, either singing or speaking. Shudder.

Danger Factor:   Low

The entities on the playground are likely harmless. Spooky, but harmless.

Gallery:

Dead Children's Playground by Emily D Monson on Atlas Obscura

Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama by LonelyPilgrim on Wikimedia

 

Sloss Furnace – Jefferson and Shelby Counties

Background:

Sloss Furnace was founded by Alabama merchant Colonel James Withers Sloss (1820-1890) and operated from the late-1800s to 1971.⁴⁹⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021. The Whitwell stoves were “sixty feet high and eighteen feet in diameter.”⁵⁰⁾Sloss Furnaces. n.d. “Sloss Furnaces: National Historic Landmark.” Sloss Furnaces. Accessed Oct 2021. The place had “two blowing engines and ten boilers, thirty feet long and forty-six inches in diameter.”⁵¹⁾Sloss Furnaces. n.d. “Sloss Furnaces: National Historic Landmark.” Sloss Furnaces. Accessed Oct 2021. The company helped usher in the Industrial Revolution, as businesses relied on the furnaces to make materials for skyscrapers, automobiles, etc.

At one time, Sloss Furnace employed a graveyard shift. Legend says that in the 1900s, the foreman for that shift was James “Slag” Wormwood. Around 150 employees fed the furnaces. Temperatures reached over 120 degrees⁵²⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021. and was unbearable, especially in the summer. Workers weren’t allowed to take any breaks or time off. They just shoveled coal into those hot furnaces. The heat, mixed with sleep deprivation, hunger, and low visibility made the job extremely dangerous. Foreman Wormwood was a backbreaker. He notoriously pushed workers too hard, forcing them to increase heat and “speed up production,” to meet quotas and impress his bosses.⁵³⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021. Forty-seven workers allegedly lost their lives and a myriad of others were hurt and incapacitated under Wormwood’s watch. That number was ten times greater “than any other shift in the history of furnaces.”⁵⁴⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021. An explosion occurred in one of the engine houses in 1888. Six workers were “burned blind.”⁵⁵⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021. One worker’s clothing was allegedly caught “in a boiler cog wheel.” He was pulled into the apparatus and workers “could do nothing as the wheel slowly crushed him to death . . . Every time the wheel turned, less of the man remained.”⁵⁶⁾Ghostgoul. n.d. “Birmingham’s Haunted Sloss Furnaces.” Ghosts and Gouls. Accessed Oct 2021. These unsafe working conditions went on for some time. Until . . .

James “Slag” Wormwood lost his balance “at the top of the highest blast furnace,” known as Big Alice, plunged into a pool of molten iron ore, and was immediately incinerated. The furnace’s methane gas likely made him dizzy. The odd thing was, however, in all Wormwood’s years of employment, he “never set foot” on the top of any furnace. The talk was that the workers “fed him to the furnace” because they’d had enough of his dangerous oppression.⁵⁷⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021. The graveyard shift was eventually halted because accidents were too numerous and “decreased steel production.”⁵⁸⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.

As stated, Wormwood is the urban legend. Every legend, though, has some fact to it. In October, 1887, a Theophilus Calvin Jowers⁵⁹⁾Some sources say the name is Richard Jowers was working the graveyard shift and lost his balance and “fell headlong into the furnace.”⁶⁰⁾Fright Find. n.d. “The Sloss Furnaces.” Fright Find. Accessed Oct 2021. Several employees said he was pushed by an invisible entity.

Suspected murders occurred left and right at and around the furnace. Ten years after Jowers’ death, a painter was found dead “in the open water tank on the Sloss Furnaces property.” Allegedly, the body was “perfectly boiled” and believed to have been murdered.⁶¹⁾Fright Find. n.d. “The Sloss Furnaces.” Fright Find. Accessed Oct 2021.

The company used convict labor, which was predominately African American, until 1928. Segregation was strictly upheld until the 1960s with Jim Crow’s separate everything: bath houses, time clocks, company picnics, etc.⁶²⁾Sloss Furnaces. n.d. “Sloss Furnaces: National Historic Landmark.” Sloss Furnaces. Accessed Oct 2021. The company’s hierarchy was indicative of the times as well. White men worked as “managers, chemists, accountants, and engineers.” Black laborers worked in “helper roles.” They had no job titles. Mid-level white workers did, though. They were “stove tenders, boiler-makers, carpenters, and machinists.”⁶³⁾Sloss Furnaces. n.d. “Sloss Furnaces: National Historic Landmark.” Sloss Furnaces. Accessed Oct 2021. White workers made higher wages, too. These bits of information are important because most of the deaths that occurred in and around the furnace were African American.

In 1981, Sloss Furnace was designated as a National Historic Landmark and the place became Birmingham’s museum in 1983.⁶⁴⁾Sloss Furnaces. n.d. “Sloss Furnaces: National Historic Landmark.” Sloss Furnaces. Accessed Oct 2021.

Paranormal Experiences:

• Workers felt an “unnatural presence” as they worked.⁶⁵⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• In 1926, a night guard was “pushed from behind” and an aggressive voice told him “to get back to work.”⁶⁶⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• Three workers went missing in 1947. They were found “unconscious and locked in a small boiler room.” The last thing the men remembered before being locked away was a burned man. He approached them and yelled at them “to push some steel.”⁶⁷⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• In 1971, night watchman Samuel Blumenthal wanted to take one last gander at the place before Sloss shut down. He was confronted by something terrifying, something “evil,” and demonic. Whatever it was tried to force him up the stairs. Blumenthal fought back and the thing “began to beat on him with his fists.” He was examined by a doctor who found his body “covered with intense burns.”⁶⁸⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• Police responded to over 100 incidents of unexplained activity.⁶⁹⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• In 1988, Florida’s Center for Paranormal Events investigated Sloss and concluded it was a “location rife with restless souls.”⁷⁰⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• In 2000, Fox’s Scariest Places examined the Furnaces and encountered a significantly high rate “of unnatural energy.”⁷¹⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• In 2002, CBS affiliate WJTV conducted research there. The team was skeptical at first but left quite convinced that Sloss was haunted after capturing footage on camera.⁷²⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• In 2003, the Alabama Foundation for Paranormal Research said Sloss was “a hotspot for paranormal activity.”⁷³⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• In 2009, Unexplained Mystery’s investigative team went to Sloss and captured “spiritual shadows on film.”⁷⁴⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• In 2012, the Ghost Adventures team was “physically assaulted” at Sloss.⁷⁵⁾Fright Furnace. n.d. “The Urban Legend of Sloss Furnace.” Fright Furnace @ Sloss. Accessed Oct 2021.
• People have heard voices saying “hurry up,” or “watch the heat.”⁷⁶⁾Fright Find. n.d. “The Sloss Furnaces.” Fright Find. Accessed Oct 2021.
• Workers claimed they saw Jowers’s ghost.

Eerie factor:           

Danger factor:  Extremely high.

Not only did workers die at the site, but deaths occurred all around Sloss Furnace. Car accidents, murders, train accidents, shootings, etc. These deaths, along with Blumenthal’s encounter with the demonic entity and the numerous convincing paranormal investigations indicate the place is rife with supernatural danger.

Gallery:

James Withers Sloss - Wikipedia

Birmingham State Herald, 19 March 1897

1906 - Casting pig iron at Sloss Furnaces - Wikimedia

Ladder and window at Sloss Furnaces, photographer Marjorie_Kaufman - Wikipedia

Birmingham Age-Herald, September 24, 1895

from Wikimedia

Sloss Furnaces - picryl

Sloss Furnaces, Birminghan AL

Sloss red ore mine no. 2 Birmingham-Jefferson County - picryl

Birmingham Age-Herald - December 16, 1894

Sloss - picryl

Birmingham State Herald - June 15, 1897

 

**Featured image by Dean Lewis on Pixabay