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The stone giants of McCalla’s wooded valley
About 30 miles southwest of Birmingham, Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park spreads across more than 1,500 acres of woods and creek bottoms split between three Alabama counties.
At the center of it all, a set of massive stone furnaces rises from the trees along Roupes Creek. They made iron for a war, survived a cavalry raid, and have been standing here ever since.
What surrounds them now is part living museum, part woodland park, and part small town from another century.
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The creekside forge that grew into a Confederate war machine
Ironmaking started here in 1830 with a small forge along the creek…