Every Once in a While I Find Gold...Relatively Speaking

I finally made it to one of my crown jewels. A place I've wanted to shoot for years. I had seen it at least a hundred times over the course of my life with Channel 13. You couldn't miss it. This sprawling industrial complex under the overpass as you crossed out of Ensley on your way to Birmingport. It was known as the Tennessee Coal & Iron Company. Being a student of history, TCI's history is actually quite fascinating. According to Wikipedia, it, at one time, was the second largest steel producer in the US employing as many as 45,000 at its peak during WWII. While it originally started in Tennessee it eventually moved its headquarters to Birmingham but kept its original name. TCI started many company towns including Ensley (named after company president Enoch Ensley), Corey (later renamed Fairfield), Docena, and Edgewater. It was merged with US Steel in 1907 through some interesting back room deals involving Teddy Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan and was one of the first 12 companies listed on the inaugural Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896.

Furnace of the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and
Railroad Company, Ensley, Alabama, 1906.

Furnaces at the Ensley Plant

I "borrowed" the images above from Wikipedia but turns out (I didn't know this) that since they were taken prior to 1923 they're considered public domain.

To say this place was big doesn't do it justice. By the time I had finished two hours later I must have walked close to three miles. That included a great deal of dead kudzu and broken terrain. I couldn't imagine how massive it must have been in its day not to mention how noisy it had to be.

600 Ton Molten Metal Mixer

The molten metal mixer on the right. You'll laugh but I always thought it was kind of creepy. I saw this as some alien with two eyes and ears and a metal face. Kinda cyborg like just staring at you before it decides to vaporize you because...well...it didn't need a reason. Reminds me of my childhood  innocence when I watched horror movies. I can trace my abject fear of scorpions to a Mexican horror movie. Funny the things we retain throughout our lives.

I had mentioned I wanted to shoot this place for some time to a photographer friend I had met online. He had been there before and had some beautiful shots. As I have come to discover, I am just one of many who shoot the things I do. I like to think I have a unique niche but we photog types all like to think we're the first to do whatever it is we do. And we all our fairly protective of our turf. I won't mention his name because I didn't ask but I will say he offered me some good tips about shooting this. What to look for and what to avoid. And to leave Cato home for this trip. Turns out there's some mighty deep manholes and I might lose a cat. It was creepy enough being here in broad daylight wondering what I might run into here as it is. I didn't need to be minding a curious cat who might fall into some hole and hurt himself and me not being able to find him. I have to admit I've grown very attached to him and I would hate for anything to happen to him.

You know, I had not planned on writing a lot for this blog. I wanted to do more pictures because I was excited to be here. If you only knew how many times I passed over this place and wanted to shoot it. Ten years at least. Maybe more. The locomotive was my magnet. As I have stated before I love trains. The old ALCO switcher at left was calling my name. Really! It was begging me to shoot it before it returned to the earth from whence it came. It was really fun climbing up on it and being in it. Seeing the old gauges and controls. Imagining the hard life it must have had. I often wondered how it came to rest where it did. Did it just die right where it sat and the company just abandoned it? In a funny sort of way I felt sorry for it. Old #5 gave its all for the company and now sits as a rusting memorial to the once great Tennessee Coal & iron Company.

My source and keep in mind it's Wikipedia so most likely factual but you never know... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Coal,_Iron_and_Railroad_Company