Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark — Attraction in Birmingham

My wife & I are haunted house junkies. So far this season we have been to 10 haunted houses. 4 in the Atlanta area and 6 in Alabama. These include: Netherworld, Nightmare's Gate, Paranoia, Folklore, Atrox Factory, Hellbilly Hollow, Hollis Haunted Chicken House, Insanitarium, Nightmare 3008, & here. This is my review on Sloss Furnace. . Sloss Furnace “Understaffed & similar to previous years” (6.5 out of 10) (Wednesday night) Total time on site: 64 minutes…Total time in Haunts: Trail- 11 minutes, Main Haunt- 19 minutes, The Thing- 5 minutes . We have gone to Sloss Furnace almost every season for the past several years and every year we go I feel the same way about the place….its big, it’s cool, it's over rated, it’s too similar to the prior year and understaffed. We arrived at Sloss Furnace around 9:50 pm on Wednesday night October 25th. We paid for 2 extreme scream tickets and tickets for “The Thing”. So in total, we spend $78 for tickets at Sloss. . We started with the haunted trail which is pretty similar to how it is every year. The monsters were spread out decently, but there could have been more. We entered a pallet wood maze, but there were no monsters in the maze, just a singing cowboy on top of the structure who made us moo like cows as he sung old McDonald so that he would guide us through the maze. We played along and it was mildly amusing and we found our way out of the maze within a few minutes once he started guiding the group. When we exited the maze we were in a large open area that had three zombies chase us. We then continued to the big slide that they have every year and then continued through the “fun house” area which is also the same every year. . Next, we went to the main haunt and it was pretty similar to how it has been in previous years. The only exception being that we were prime targets for the monsters with our glowing necklaces. As soon as we walked in a monster grabbed us and took us to a bathtub and smeared dirty water on our faces. As we continued we noticed that the monsters were spread out more than what would be considered ideal. We were touched several times and swarmed by multiple monsters a few times. We got to a big open room that was setup specifically for the “extreme scream” people. They put me in “Stocks” which forced me to let go of the wife’s hand and there was a guy waiting around the corner for that to happen so he could grab my wife. He put her in a chair, put a chain around her neck, and then chained her arms to the chair. As that was happening the guy that put me in the stocks took me over to a tilted table and told me to get up on it (he couldn’t lift me onto it). Then he and another monster worked together to chain my arms down and then they got on top of me, forced my mouth open, and acted like they were going to vomit in my mouth. My wife was able to quickly get out of her chains while both monsters were preoccupied with me. She was then able to enjoy watching them “torture” me. We then continued through the haunt with minimal touching from monsters after that point. We then entered their 3D section of the haunt which was the same as it always is. There was not a single monster in the 3D section (until the very end)….the closest thing to a monster was a fake sword sitting in a corner. At the very end, as we exited a woman grabbed my wife and pulled her out of the haunt. . Overall our experience at Sloss had me feeling underwhelmed & disappointed. I think that feeling is a mix between several things: It’s our 10th haunted attraction this year with so many good ones to compare to; it was during the week and they were understaffed as usual; it was so similar to previous years, we weren’t touched/harassed as much as we felt was deserved for the extra price, and the total price we paid was too much for the experience we received. It’s good enough to go to, but with so many other good options in the Birmingham area, I can’t recommend it over most of the...

GO SEE SLOSS FURNACES!!! We weren't expecting this stop to be one of our family's most favorite stops on our road trip. My husband and I are history buffs and we thought this would be a good "kill an hour" stop on our way back home from our road trip. After 2 hours, we had to almost drag our children (ages 9 and 7) away due to the late hour.

It's hard to imagine how an abandoned furnace could be so interesting but I will endeavor to communicate how it captured our attention.

For those who like history or learning about the background of something, this place definitely is a vast well of information. We enjoyed learning about the role Birmingham played in the iron industry nationally and even internationally. We also enjoyed learning about how iron was produced.

For those who enjoy getting to experience history in a hands-on manner, this place also checks that off the list. This vast property is almost entirely open for exploration. There are sections of the factory that are gated off for safety reasons (usually at a certain point on some stairs when it gets high off the ground), but my curious children never once complained or felt constricted by availability to explore. They (and my husband and I too!) loved getting to touch, climb, and walk around a place with such incredible history. We loved how they have not tried to shine this place up or restore it to "its glory days." Rather, they have worked to keep it safe but present it in its abandoned state. It gave it a very cool, unique vibe. We loved going in the old engine room with the original panels and levers still there and getting to even push the levers up and down.

For those who want to just check out a cool, artsy environment, there are plenty of wonderful photos just waiting to happen as you can see.

To this day, my children still tell others about the cool furnaces they got to go see. It is a wonderful learning experience that allows a lot of hands-on opportunities which is great for the kids.

Also, it's totally free. No charge. Just a donation if...

If you like haunted places, go here. This place is for sure very haunted. The second you walk in you can feel how haunted it is. A couple friends and i walked around in there and we had one of those ghost things where it tells you what the ghost was saying. We didn't really think it would work. It was a joke. We started asking questions because it kept saying random stuff about fire and glass and stuff and it didn't respond so we started naming the people on our tour guide and we went through about ten and said "Clyde love" and it goes "love. Love. Love" so we flipped out and turned it off because we were scared. We were taking picture and all of us were pretty shaken alread and we saw this dude standing beside one of the furnaces and their little 5 year old sister started crying and so we were all very freaked out and trying to act like we weren't. Both of our moms decided we should go into this tunnel and all of us did not want to because we decided this place was haunted and a dark tunnel was the very last place we wanted to go. Well they started walking in and we were little and thought that it would safer to stick together and when we walked in, one of the little girls started screaming and we turned around and in this tunnel and the same dude in jeans and a white shirt with ash and stuff on his face turns around and we were all 12 and crying and trying to get out but our moms thought we were crazy so we finally ran out and when we were in the gift shop my mom decided she saw and ghost and went to the car. My friend lilly, my sister Gracie, and i followed her out and she was running so we started running and she locked herself in the car and we looked in the reflection and this different dude with a brown hat and polo and darker brown overalls was standing there and she had locked the doors so we were freaking out and the rest of the people ran out and they started talking about how they saw this dude walking down the stairs. Ask anyone who's been there....