Battelle Alabama
In the late 19th century, a group of miners from the northern state of Ohio discovered limestone, ore, and coal on what was later named Battelle. 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. After the mining company ceased operations at Battelle and the better homes were sold and moved, there was never much activity in the community. The Belcher Lumber Company of Centerville operated there for a few years in the 1940s.
34°38′58″N 85°33′55″W / 34.64944°N 85.56528°W / 34.64944; -85.56528
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).