Tannehill Ironworks was one of Alabama's most productive Civil War ironmaking sites and the state's only three-furnace ironworks during the war years, capable of producing 22 tons of pig iron a day for the Selma Arsenal and Gun Works. Equipped with hot blast stoves and steam power, the Roupes Valley furnaces were among the most modern of their day. Experiments with red iron ore there opened the door to iron manufacture in Birmingham. A foundry and tan yard at the site made iron and leather products for the Confederate Army, including kettles, ovens, hollow-ware, harness, and canteens. Furnace No. 1 was built by southern ironmaster Moses Stroup in 1859, and William L. Sanders completed Furnaces 2 and 3, which went into blast in 1862-63 with financial assistance from the Confederate government. The site was also the location of one of Alabama's first bloomery forges, erected in 1830 by Daniel Hillman, which made horseshoes, plows, and other agricultural products. It is considered the birthplace of the Birmingham Iron and Steel District, and no other place in Alabama made iron for as long as these works did before the Civil War.