I am aware that this is a long but interesting story, and, it poses two
mysteries that I would like to solve. Who is the R. P. Castleman that founded
Castleman Alabama, and, Who is buried in the ghost cemetery there.
If anyone whoul care to pursue this or has any ideas to share please contact
me e-mail aCastleman(a)aol.com.
Former mining town, Castleman, is now just a memory
(story from The Leeds News, Leeds, Alabama, 9 November 1989 pg 3b)
by Gary V. Pool
�It once stood as a hydraulic iron ore mining camp along the barren
slopes of an old pine ridge. Some have said it was there as much as five
tears before Leeds became a town. Legends portray it as an environmentalist�s
nightmare with it�s mud, silt and washed away land, but the eye was drawn to
the town itself.
�Castleman,� the miners of the 1880s called it, today it�s known as Terry
Walker Estates, located just off what is now Rex Lake and Ziegler Roads,
along the banks of the Little Cahaba River.
Castleman much like the boom towns of the early west was born from the
rich mineral deposits that lay beneath her sheets. Early settlers, many of
whom now lie at rest here in the valley, once spoke of it as a town with an
extremely short life span. Not more than 20 years they said, but during that
time, it grew to sixty homes with some thousand residents living in and
around the old mining Camp.
From three years of research of old mining records, abstract deeds, and
the legends handed down, comes the ghostly discovery of an almost forgotten
town and it�s people. An era in history that we today can view through a
misty curtain of time, for this was Castleman as I believe it was in the year
of 1882.
By the spring of 1882, plans for the camp were well underway. It was to
be an extension of the newly built Sloss Iron & Steel Company of Birmingham.
Castleman was to perform but one function, to supply the raw iron ore that
was needed for two of the largest blast furnaces ever constructed in this
area. R. P. Castleman, believed to be a mining engineer from the northern
states, for whom the town was named, was probably hired by Sloss to build and
oversee the operation. By the fall of 1882, Castleman along with
representatives of Sloss had purchased the mineral rights to hundreds of
acres here in the Cahaba Valley.
Today, the descendants of Mrs. Martha Poole (no relation to author)
recall how their grandmother sold the mineral rights to 175 acres for the
staggering sum of ten cents an acre. A verbal agreement was also thought to
have been reached in which Mrs. Poole, as well as others, would become the
sole owners of all buildings constructed on their property, in the event of
the closing of the mines. In later years they would learn that the small
print in the contract nullified any claim that they might have.
With the purchase of the mineral rights complete, R. P. focused his
thoughts on solving other problems. For the lumber that would be needed, it
is believed that it was purchased from a large sawmill that operated during
this time somewhere along what is now known as Mountain View Lane. Also
needed was a way to bring in the large amounts of supplies and equipment as
well as the removal of tons of ore that would be mined each day from this
isolated area. For this R. P. turned to the Southern Railway.
Today, the large book of abstract deeds that was left in my care by my
grandfather is tattered, fragile and yellowing with age. It�s pages reveal
the history of a slowly developing valley that spans from 1882 to 1951.
Clearly it tells the story of the purchasing of the right of way and the
laying of the rails of the old tram line from the small community of Leeds
into the mining camp of Castleman.
It took five men just to handle the 500 pound 40 feet rails. Twenty eight
to thirty spikes to the rail, three blows to the spike, 264 rails to the
mile. Today, although covered with trees and bushes there are long stretches
of the rail bed that can still be walked. In the past years it has become a
favorite path for squirrel hunters here in the valley. As late as 1960, a
section of the rail was discovered, still in place as it was laid by the men
of the Southern Railway so long ago.
The first building to be constructed is believed to have been the pumping
station. Because of it�s isolation, it was probably a most difficult
undertaking. R. P. and his men built it only a short distance from the Little
Cahaba River, approximately one mile below what is now Ziegler Road.
Electrical power was not to come to the valley until the fall of 1928.
Castleman�s pumps were to be powered by a massive wood and coal burning steam
engine. The equipment was transported down the newly built tram line to the
nearest point, then loaded on mule drawn wagons and carried over-land to the
building site. On completion, a large deep cistern was dug near the station
and water was diverted from the Little Cahaba River into the cistern giving
the pump a never ending controllable supply of water.
For years the legend of the pump was told again and again around the
campfires of fox hunters and on the loading dock of old Fuller�s Mill by men
who had witnessed it�s awesome power. Stories of a stream of water that could
easily snap the handles from picks and shovels as well as the arms and backs
of men who were unfortunate to find themselves in it�s path. Much like an
epitaph of the past, only a crumbling foundation and a rusting pump support
stand today as a testimonial of what took place here 105 years ago.
Typical of mining camps of the eighteen hundreds, Castleman had few
luxuries. It was a place where the men worked from sun up to sun down and the
women aged before their time. It�s children played around the shanty shotgun
style houses as they stood tightly spaced along the crest of Pine Ridge
overlooking the mining operation on the lower slopes. The business district
was built with a number of large buildings in the very spot where Terry
Walker Estates is now.
Mrs. Ellen Moore, a highly respected life long resident of the valley
once talked of a large two story hotel or boarding house where the single men
who worked the mines ate their meals. She also recalled how in it�s last
days, just before it�s closing, Castleman had grown to such proportions, that
the government had plans of building a post office.
Mr. Bert Poole, a resident of the Mt. Hebron community once recalled an
unforgettable visit to the large commissary as a young boy. �The day was hot
as I left my plow mule standing in the field, I walked over to the camp to
purchase a plug of chewing tobacco that the miners used. Soon after I resumed
plowing I became violently ill. When I came to, I was lying on the back porch
of our home place with my family gathered around. My mother, with a worried
look, was on her knees bathing my face with a cool damp cloth. That tobacco
was made for the hardiest of men. Young boys were no match for it�s strength�.
Water, water everywhere and not a drop fit to drink could very well have
been the cry of it�s people when the three wells of Castleman were dug. They
were deep, well over one hundred feet. Known as community wells, two could be
found among it�s homes and the third next to the two story boarding house.
By 1910 most of the town�s buildings had been torn down and moved to new
mining locations. With it�s ore gone all that was left were the ghostly
shambles of a town that had once been. In the 1920�s and 30�s it was young
men like Edgar Davis, Will Gore, Roy Edwards, Walter and Will Owens, Louis
Deshazo, Doc Bates, Ott and Fred Standifer and Joseph (BO) McLaughlin that
made fox hunting a popular sport here in the Cahaba Valley. These men knew
about the open, deep, dark abandoned wells of Castleman and the danger they
posed for their hunting dogs. Over the years working together they kept the
wells covered with logs they had cut until eventually two caved in, but one
remained.
In the early 50�s the well was in service again, and as a young boy who
knew and loved every square inch of this area I often visited the large hog
farm of Roy and May Belle Dorough. While at play with their seven sons we
would become some of the last to enjoy a refreshing drink from this timely
old well. Today, with the development of Terry Walker Estates, it is almost
unbelievable that most pass it by, not knowing that only a few yards off
Ziegler in the middle of Keith St. lies buried the last well of Castleman.
One of the most remembered and lasting areas of the mining camp was the
two acre swampish, snake infested waters of old Robison�s pond. The pond was
located adjacent to the W. E. Robison estate approximately one mile North
East of what is now Terry Walker Country Club. Whether the pond was built
intentionally or not, is not known today, but records show that it would play
a major role in the operation of the mines. With the ram bed serving as a
dam, the pond was partially filled from the runoff waters of the hydraulic
hoses and partly from a small wet weather branch.
It was here at Robison�s pond that R. P. chose to build a number of large
barns. The barns were used in the housing and care of some 40 mules. The
mules were used to pull the large dump wagons filled with ore to the loading
stations along the tram line. Because of the tremendous work load placed on
the mules, it is believed that they were used on a daily rotating basis. At
the loading station the tram line ran through a deep cut that had been dug
into the side of the ridge. With the top of the ore cars below ground level
and using a slide schute, the ore was loaded for shipment. Today, although
partly erased by time, the old tram cut can still be seen on the left side of
Ziegler road as one travels up Pine Ridge.
During the 20 years of it�s operation tons of ore were taken from the
land. All along Pine Ridge deep gullies lay open from the power of hydraulic
hoses. From the wash, large mounds of gravel came to rest on the valley
floor. During 1927-1928 much of the gravel was removed by the county. Using
convicts, tethered with ball and chain for labor, armed guards on horse back
stood watch as supervisors in the loading of mule drawn wagons and old
Model-T trucks. The gravel was used to resurface many of the area�s roads
including Highway 119.
Today, for those of us whose minds search the past for clues to unsolved
mysteries, none is more baffling than the discovery, made in 1936, of a small
cemetery on the western side of Pine Ridge. Here, where no mining took place,
16 mounded graves were found. Their red cedar head and foot markers were
burned to ground level by a raging forest fire that once swept through the
area. Could this have been the burial grounds for the people of Castleman? No
one can say for sure today. For like so much of the history of the old mining
camp itself, their identity lies somewhere behind a misty curtain of time
and, for all intents and purposes, they will remain as the elusive ghost of
Castleman".
note: The above article was graciously sent to me by George Davis of Leeds
Alabama. He discovered it during his search of old mining towns.
The article has a photo showing a group of a dozen or more men, dressed in
working clothes, standing by or sitting on a Monitor Hydraulic Nozzle with
the following caption: �Miners in the 1890�s used a hydraulic nozzle to shoot
powerful jets of water in efforts to mine iron ore or other minerals. This
photo, reprinted from The Old West series from Time-Life books, shows miners
searching for gold in Idaho, but the same technigue was used in Castleman, a
town now gone, to reap iron ore from the mineral rich hillsides.�
Having lived near Placerville, California most of my life, I am familiar with
the power of these huge nozzles.