Battelle Alabama

Battelle, Alabama is a ghost town in DeKalb County, Alabama. Battelle was once a thriving mining community which was spread in a north – south line along the foot of Lookout Mountain five miles north of Valley Head, Alabama.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Battelle included hundreds of houses, a school, a commissary, a hotel and post office, in addition to the furnace and coke ovens. Battelle had a water system with water from a spring that was pumped into a large wooden tank and then piped into the surrounding homes.

The Lookout Mountain Iron Company was a boon to the town’s economy for years. By 1905, pig iron ingredients of higher quality were found in Birmingham, Alabama and the town started dying.  The Belcher Lumber Company of Centerville operated there for a few years in the 1940s.

The area is remote. Brush covered miles of dirt roads over private land leads close to the site followed by a hike through more brush. Permission is required in order to visit the ghost town, as it is only accessible through a privately owned road.

34°38′58″N 85°33′55″W / 34.64944°N 85.56528°W / 34.64944; -85.56528

Alabama Cities Index

Alabama Ghosts and Ghost Towns Index

^{Wikipedia contributors, “Battelle, Alabama,”  Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battelle,_Alabama&oldid=624613754 (accessed January 16, 2015).}