Vulcan statue

Birmingham's Vulcan was conceived to show off the city's iron industry at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. According to Vulcan Park and Museum's timeline, the Commercial Club chose Vulcan to represent Birmingham in October 1903 and the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Moretti was chosen the next month. The Encyclopedia of Alabama says it was cast between 10 March and 16 April 1904 and calls the 56-foot, 60-ton statue the largest iron figure ever cast. The park's own pages say 50 tons. The museum says it was cast from Sloss No. 2 pig iron. At the fair the statue won the Grand Prize in the mineral department and Moretti also won a medal.

Its return was less glorious. The timeline says Vulcan was shipped back to Birmingham in February 1905 and lay in pieces along the railroad tracks for 18 months, then stood at the Alabama State Fairgrounds from 1906. In 1935 the Kiwanis Club spearheaded the effort to move it to Red Mountain, with Works Progress Administration funds. The Encyclopedia says it was fully assembled on its new perch in May 1937, while the park's timeline records a dedication in 1939 with a nine day-long celebration. A torch was added over the spear in 1946; the Encyclopedia says it glowed green if the city had not seen a traffic fatality and red if it had.