Redding Shaft
The Redding Shaft is a vertical shaft iron ore mine on Red Mountain which was operated by the Woodward Iron Company from 1917 to 1927. It and the Pyne Mine are the only two vertical shaft ore mines in the Birmingham District.
When the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI) took control of the Birmingham Mineral Railroad in 1917, Woodward's access to its Songo No. 1 Mine, a slope mine originating on the northern flank of Red Mountain, was hindered. The company sunk a 384-foot deep vertical shaft, 10'-4" x 7'-0" in section, into the southern slope, 1,000 feet away and directly above the active Songo workings. The ore could then by transported by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad's South Branch to the Woodward Furnace.
Those surface works constitute the only Woodward Company site within the present Red Mountain Park. The headframe and other steel structures have been removed. The surviving hoist house is notable for its Spanish Mission-style design.
References
- McFerrin, Eric (2009) "Red Mountain Park's Historic Redding Shaft" Society for Industrial Archeology Newsletter. Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 18–19