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The Lone Pine Mine
You are standing in front of the entrance to Lone Pine Mine Number 3. This mine is one of over one hundred ore mines on Red Mountain that were active between 1860 and 1960.
In the early twentieth century, iron ore was extracted from this mine and loaded onto the Mineral Railroad.
The Lone Pine Mine's tunnels have never been completely mapped. However, some Red Mountain workings (the parts of a mine that have been excavated) are as much as fifteen miles long. The extensive workings of the Valley View Mine, located about half a mile west of Vulcan Park, are shown in this map.
Ore mines were just one place where men did hard labor to support the iron industry. Courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Archives, Catalog #7.06
The first mining on Red Mountain was relative easy. Miners used pickaxes and shovels to gather ore from a major surface outcropping. After that was gone, they had to undertake the dangerous job of underground mining. Courtesy of Birmingham Public Library Archives, Catalog #29.81 |