At the beginning of the 20th century, Battelle included hundreds of houses, a school, a commissary, a hotel and post office, in addition to the furnace and coke ovens.

The Lookout Mountain Iron Company was consequently formed by a group of Ohio mining speculators, headed by Colonel John Gordon Battelle.

Although he already had large investments in the iron and steel industry in Ohio and the Midwest, Battelle took a great personal interest in the operation to which he gave his name.

After the mining company ceased operations at Battelle and the better homes were sold and moved, there was never much activity in the community.

In 1969 when the Alabama Great Southern Railroad train derailed and propane tanks exploded there, news accounts gave the site of the wreck as Battelle.