The Porter's 1960's House
	I have to say that I am not absolutely certain that this is the right house. I recall the fireplace was on the South wall of the living room. But In any case, this house has bamboo in the back yard, and Tom Porter loved to watch his bamboo grow, measuring its upward progress at 6 inches a day.

The greatest feature of this house was its location next to THE CUT. We played hard here for years: climbing the unfinished cliffs, tossing fireworks over the edge, watching 4th of July fireworks from the abrupt end, and accumulating collections of fossil rocks and iron ore. The fossils (whose tightly packed shells and worms I suppose are Cambrian era) were an attraction to others as well.
We read in the Bloomington Daily Pantagraph that an Illinois State student was going there for research. Several times when driving through Birmingham, I saw signs advertising the now-defunct Red Mountain Museum, and suspected it was telling this story.

Another great feature was this old mining trail that took you straight over to Vulcan. Running along where 19th Ave S would be, this trail is now of course interrupted by the Cut (and pretty heavily infested by poison ivy). Nevertheless, the City of Birmingham still has an opportunity to do something interesting with this pathway.

	Written by Pete Hughes after our visit on April 12, 1999. If you too have strong memories of these scenes, please mail me at