Smoke, steel, and a voice that won’t let go—this one starts in the heat of Birmingham’s iron age and refuses to cool. We walk the catwalks of Sloss Furnaces, where the Magic City was forged out of ore and ambition, and where long shifts, toxic air, and thin pay wrote a ledger of human cost. Then comes the legend: James “Slag” Wormwood, a foreman as feared in life as he is in the stories that say he never left. Was his fall into molten iron a tragic misstep—or a reckoning in the dark?
We pull apart the history and the haunt: day tours that teach the mechanics of blast furnaces and the strange nighttime reports of footsteps, cold spots, and a voice barking “get back to work.” Paranormal teams claim captures; guards and visitors tell their own tense moments. We don’t just chase chills—we ask what these stories carry about labor, dignity, and the price people paid to turn Birmingham into an industrial heartbeat. The site is a national historic landmark now, and every October the grounds transform into a top-tier haunted attraction that uses real industry as its stage. It’s fun and frightening, but it also hits different when you remember what happened there.
Along the way we trade haunted house war stories, plan a road trip, and invite you to be part of a special project: send us your scariest true encounters and we’ll read them—raw and cozy—on a pajama-party YouTube video and drop the audio on the feed. Ready to test your courage and your conscience at the same time? Press play, share this episode with a friend who loves history with their horror, and leave a quick review so more curious minds can find the show.
