Janney Furnace Civil War and Native American Museum (Alabama)
| Name | Janney Furnace Civil War and Native American Museum and Interpretive Center |
|---|---|
| Type | History |
| City / County / State | Ohatchee, Calhoun County, Alabama |
| Physical Address | 145 Janney Road, Ohatchee, Alabama 36271 ✅Source-2 |
| Museum Hours | Thursday–Monday, 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. (Closed Tuesday and Wednesday) ✅Source-1 |
| Park Hours | Open daily from daylight to dusk ✅Source-2 |
| Admission | Free admission ✅Source-1 |
| Phone | (256) 892-5198 ✅Source-1 |
| National Register Listing | National Register Information System ID: 76000315 (Listed: September 28, 1976) ✅Source-3 |
| View on OpenStreetMap | OpenStreetMap ✅Source-5 |
| Directions | Open in Google Maps |
| Public Stewardship | Listed by Calhoun County Parks and Rec as “Janney Furnace Park and Museum (Ohatchee)” ✅Source-4 |
At Janney Furnace Park near Ohatchee, this museum and interpretive center brings two deep time layers into focus: Alabama’s industrial heritage and the region’s Native American past. The setting is unusually vivid. A towering stone furnace stack stands nearby, turning a visit into something more than a gallery experience—history here feels anchored in place.
What This Museum Interprets
A Landmark Of Ironmaking
- The preserved furnace stack as a physical trace of 19th-century production.
- Interpretation of how ore, charcoal, limestone, and labor were organized into an industrial system.
- Plain-language explanations that connect a single structure to a wider regional economy.
Regional History Across Cultures
- Civil War–era material culture, presented as a local story rather than a distant timeline.
- Native American artifacts gathered from the surrounding area and preserved for public learning.
- A park-and-museum pairing that encourages visitors to connect exhibits with the landscape.
Janney Furnace As An Industrial Site
The furnace was built during the Civil War era, with construction beginning in 1863 under Alfred A. Janney, and the remaining stack is noted as roughly 50 feet tall. ✅Source-6
How The Furnace Was Meant To Work
Janney Furnace was designed to produce pig iron—a brittle first-stage iron product that could be refined or cast into other forms. The site’s FAQ also notes a rated capacity of 15 tons of cast iron per day and describes “bosh” as the interior zone where heat concentrates. ✅Source-8
- Ore supplied the metal.
- Charcoal provided fuel and heat.
- Limestone helped remove impurities during smelting.
- Airflow and sustained high temperatures did the transformative work.
Inside The Museum and Interpretive Center
The galleries are oriented around the park’s core themes, with objects and context working together. Expect an experience that favors local specificity: the story of iron production in this part of Alabama and the long human presence in the surrounding landscape.
Civil War–Era Collections
Rather than aiming for a broad national survey, the collection is most compelling when it stays close to place—how communities lived, worked, and documented their lives in the mid-19th century. Labels and displays are best approached as material evidence: what objects reveal when you slow down and read them carefully.
Native American Artifacts From The Region
The museum also includes a substantial Native American component, described as artifacts collected locally and shared with the public through donations. You may see items such as bowls and stone points that help frame daily life, craft, and continuity across generations. ✅Source-6
A Good Way To Read The Displays
- Look for provenance cues: where an item was found, who preserved it, and why it matters.
- Notice materials—stone, clay, iron—and how each shapes what survives over time.
- Connect indoor exhibits to the outdoor site so interpretation stays grounded in geography.
National Register Recognition
The furnace is documented in the National Park Service’s National Register digital assets as a listed site in Alabama, with National Register Information System ID 76000315 and a listed date of September 28, 1976. ✅Source-3
Location Setting Within Calhoun County Parks
Calhoun County’s Parks and Rec listings identify the site as “Janney Furnace Park and Museum (Ohatchee),” reinforcing its role as both a public park landscape and a curated museum experience. ✅Source-4
Pinpointing The Museum On OpenStreetMap
The museum appears in OpenStreetMap as a specific mapped node, useful for verifying the exact point location and matching it to the on-the-ground entrance within the park. ✅Source-5
If you are arranging a group visit or building a class discussion around industrial heritage and archaeology, the site’s park-and-museum format supports both: an indoor interpretive layer, then an outdoor landmark that makes the narrative tangible.