Iron & Identity: The Archaeology of the Red Mountain

It might come as a surprise, but the Birmingham region is a hotbed of archeological research. After its founding in 1871, Birmingham was imagined to be the industrial capital of the New South. Workers migrated, especially Black workers, from agricultural setting across Alabama to make it in a new kind of Postbellum urban setting. Early settlements in the Birmingham District were dispersed mining camps. And these camps left a lot of artifacts behind.

Historical archaeologist Will McCollum just wrapped up several months of excavations at the Black iron ore mining camp of Smythe, located in what is now Red Mountain Park. In this talk, he will share some of his initial findings. He will discuss ways he uses the tools of historical archaeology to understand practices undertaken by Birmingham’s Black miners in the crevices of Birmingham’s development as a prototype for urban industrialism in the Postbellum South.

His research turns…