Tannehill Historic Trail

Travel back in time along the hiking trail of Tannehill Historic State Park. Tannehill is a prime example of why the Birmingham area was the center of steel and iron production in the 1800s. Built in 1830 along the banks of Roupes Creek, the foundry could produce 20 tons of iron a day and was a key munitions producer for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. On March 31, 1865, the Union Army arrived and laid the foundry and related buildings to ruin.

That's the way the site remained until the 1970s when Tannehill was rediscovered by historians. Painstakingly, researchers reconstructed the foundry to its original working condition and in 1976 actually fired up the original blower house for the first time in over 100 years.

Since then, Tannehill has grown to encompass 1,500 acres of live oak and hickory forest. Roupes Creek still flows today as it did in 1865, with a few notable additions. Along its bank now stands Plank Road, a reproduction of a town circa 1865 that houses local artisans crafting quilts, furniture and pottery.

This 4.2-mile loop trail is an easy walk over wide dirt roads, many originally used as early "interstates" traveling between towns and regions such as the Old Bucksville State Road and Iron Road. Along the route you will pass and be able to walk atop the huge blower house, visit the Alabama Museum of Iron and Steel, pass the remnants of the slave quarters, and pay respects at the slave cemetery, an unobtrusive gravesite with small, flat river rock used to mark the graves. Only one is actually identified – the grave of Josh Stroup, his name hand-etched into the stone.

Tannehill is truly a remarkable site to visit and is literally a hike back in time.