Seven chapter members tour Monroe Iron Mines

Town of Monroe Historian, James Nelson, leads an expedition to four iron mines in his town.

Standing on a rock bridge within the O'Neal Mine (star in 2004 aerial photo) Jim relayed its history, including the story told to him by one of the old timers, who was a student in the Turkeytown School, as the locality was called then, when the building started to shake. The teacher would not let the kids flee. A mine collapse is what shook the school, which was subsequently moved further from the mine.

Upon climbing up to the Forshee Mine, Teri looked through this arch to a surprise.
The surprise was the view from the top of this cliff face (red arrow) cut by miners removing the ore from the mountain.

The Mombasha is a 'U' shaped deep cut as seen in this 2007 aerial view.

Crossing the cut on a supporting horizontal pillar.

Our thanks to Jim Nelson for sharing these remains of Monroe's mining history with us!