Those are not stacks of firewood.  It's pig iron, ready to be loaded for shipment.  Woodward was the largest of Birmingham owned iron makers.  The first furnace blown in at this this site in 1883.  The last blast furnace blown out in 1973.

Woodward operated an extensive company railroad to coal and ore mines extending from Mulga to  Pyne, south of   Bessemer.  Pyne ore mine, with its deep  1280 foot verticle shaft tapping the ore seam from Shades Valley, operated until 1971.  It was the last operating ore mine in the Birmingham   area.

 Owner Rick Woodward also owned the Birmingham Baron's, a minor league baseball team. They played at Rickwood Field.

Postcard Birmingham is a work always in
progress by Warren Reed