Birmingham, Alabama: Vulcan the Iron Man

The Vulcan statue has returned to its pedestal on Red Mountain. His massive cast iron buttocks was put in place mid-June. However, it will no longer be a 'Moon Over Homewood' (title of a 1981 song). Vulcan has been whirled around to more of his original orientation, and faces a different direction. Also, the red and green indicator in his hand changed -- it will no longer look like a lime or cherry popsicle. It's been removed, to show the original spear point underneath. However, high-intensity lights are pointed at it, so that at night, it can still glow red or green.

Birmingham's beloved Vulcan will return to his perch high above the city by May 2003, and if all goes as planned, he and his completely renovated park will be receiving visitors in the fall. Right now, though, his giant head and arm (the one holding the spear) are sitting in the sculpture garden of the Birmingham Museum of Art, if anyone wants a face-to-face meeting with the god.

As of mid-November, 1999, the Vulcan statue is completely gone from its pedestal! The process of removing it took a few weeks, and along the way, workers discovered that much of the structure had severely decayed. Many of the bolts that held the right arm together were down to about a third of their original diameter. About half of the statue was filled with concrete (expansion and contraction of which caused some of the damage to the statue), and that slowed the job, as workers had to dig out much of it before removing the lower part of Vulcan's torso and his famed buttocks.

Latest reports still indicate that Vulcan will not have his torch when he returns to Red Mountain in a few years. If he has the spear instead, he may still have his function as a traffic safety reminder. One plan is to place red and green spotlights on the ground...at night, these would illuminate the spear head. This plan has much backing as it would preserve the statue's original form, but keep its latest function.

BTW, many folks did not realize that Vulcan's spear head has been in his hand all along -- the torch was just fitted over it when added to the statue.