| Free Indeed - Part 5 : Vulcan in Birmingham, Alabama My native city, Birmingham, Alabama, like its namesake in England, is historically a steel town. It was commonly referred to, before the decline of that industry there, as the "Pittsburgh of the South." Dominating the landscape of Birmingham for most of the 20th century was a large statue of the demon Vulcan. He has been down for refurbishing for a couple of years, but when he stands in his place on Red Mountain he is 56 feet tall; 180 feet including his pedestal. He is the largest cast iron statue in the world. He was built to represent the state of Alabama at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. The enormous, lavish exhibitions held in the U.S. and other countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries include numerous elements of idolatry, especially in terms of architecture and sculpture. In many ways these expositions had as much influence in their time as television has in ours. They made a staggering impact on American society, serving to establish the modern national identity and to birth consumer culture. Much more research needs to be done by the mapping community on the strongholds established over this country by the idolatry and propaganda of these exhibitions. I will touch on them briefly again in later sections of this report to discuss images of Minerva/False Liberty, but I will not treat them in detail here. The Birmingham Vulcan was sculpted and cast by Italian immigrant Giuseppe Moretti. It was first sculpted in the church of St. Stephen's in Passaic, New Jersey, then shipped to Alabama to be cast in Birmingham. The production in New Jersey aroused local curiosity, and, according to the Newark Daily: "Some thought a great saint was being built for the church, and they crossed themselves as they approached. But all were awed by the grandeur and majesty of the figure, and their exclamations of wonder and surprise were good evidence of the impression it made upon their minds." http://www.bham.lib.al.us/Archives/oldsite/vulcanbirminghamsmanofiron.htm The Vulcan statue won the Grand Prize in the Mineral Department at the St. Louis Fair, and Moretti also won a silver medal for his Head of Christ, sculpted from Alabama marble. Back in Birmingham, folks were not so sure what to do with a 56 foot cast iron statue of an ugly demon whose naked behind was showing. It seems that the naked behind bothered them a great deal more than the fact that he was a demon. In any case, he ended up at the state fair grounds for almost 30 years, at one point wearing painted on overalls and holding a giant Coke in his hand instead of his spear and hammer. (You would probably have to be from the South to fully appreciate the humor of this situation :) In 1930, Vulcan was rescued from the fair grounds and placed on a 124 foot pedestal on the side of Red Mountain, from which he overlooks the city. In 1946 he was given an interesting job. His torch was fitted with a large neon light, which glows green most of the time, but glows red when there has been a traffic fatality. Red, of course, would be the natural color of a torch, and this function is especially interesting in light of Vulcan's association with Mollech. The statue is currently being renovated after giant cracks developed over a number of years. The renovations will cost approximately 12.5 million dollars. In a city with as many Christians as Birmingham, smack in the center of the Bible Belt, it is surely a testimony to the blindness of the church to idolatry that this graven image of a demon will continue to serve as the most visible symbol of "The Magic City." On a recent trip to Birmingham, I was pondering the Vulcan story and I remembered hearing about a Statue of Liberty in Birmingham who used to be known as "Vulcan's Girlfriend." I decided to track her down. This replica of the Statue of Liberty claims to be the largest one in the world. At one-fifth the size of the one in New York Harbor, she is even larger than the one that stands on the Seine in Paris. The owner of Liberty National Life Insurance Company had her cast in Haute-Marne France in 1956. She sat on top of the downtown Liberty National Building in Birmingham for 33 years, in plain view of the Vulcan statue on Red Mountain. The local "joke" was that she was Vulcan's girlfriend. Eventually Liberty National sold its downtown building, but they didn't sell the statue. She came down from her perch and left Vulcan's gaze. In 1989 she was installed in her own park, just outside of town on I-459. Her torch burns perpetually with natural gas. Liberty Park is surrounded by posh offices, including a regional headquarters for the Boy Scouts, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Birmingham-based company Vulcan Materials. Across I-459 from Liberty Park is a brand new Veteran's Memorial to Alabama's war dead in the 20th century. It is a modern design, consisting of 36 stark concrete pillars rising to support nothing in front of a narrow white marble temple. Inside the temple the names of Alabama's war dead are engraved, along with quotes from various presidents, and there is a metal obelisk pointing up to the open sky above. On each of the 36 pillars are plaques bearing reproductions of letters written by soldiers, telegrams informing next of kin of a soldier's death, and art work representing various aspects of war. On one of them is the caption "And Vulcan's children fought for us, all glory be to each." I have found several examples of war memorials which include a Queen of Heaven figure set up to gaze at an obelisk. This, however, is the first example I have found that openly states that the war dead were the children of Vulcan/Mollech, being thus sacrificed to Satan. Birmingham's Statue of Liberty: http://www.geocities.com/virtualbirmingham/liberty/ The Alabama Veteran's Memorial: http://www.alabamaveterans.com/HTML/memorialframes.htm For photographs of the Vulcan statue, photographs of other works by Moretti, and a comparison of Vulcan with other colossal statues in the world: http://www.bham.lib.al.us/Archives/oldsite/birminghamsvulcanstatue.htm For information on the restoration of the Vulcan statue: http://www.robinson-iron.com/pages/vulcan.html Fundraising goal of 12.5 million dollars: http://www.vulcanpark.org/money.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Free Indeed - Part 6 : Vulcan In Pittsburgh Free Indeed - Home |