[1] The company operated iron and coal mines, quarries and furnaces; these were connected by a private industrial railroad based in Bessemer, Alabama.
The company administrative office was located near Woodward Ore Mine #1, south of Paul's Hill in Bessemer.
In 1968, Mead Corporation acquired Woodward Iron Company just as the nation's steel industry was about to begin restructuring and a long decline.
The Woodward line, using a switchback configuration, was built along the face of Red Mountain and connecting to each of three mine sites.
In 1918, Woodward began construction of the vertical-shaft Pyne Mine, which reached iron ore about 1,200 feet (370 m) below ground.
It was between present-day Brighton and Dolomite, on the site of the plantation of Fleming Jordan, an early planter in Jefferson County.
The ore was transported from the mines on Red Mountain, by rail through Lipscomb and Brighton to the Woodward Furnace.
Koppers Company purchased the remaining coke oven production plant and continued that operation for several additional years before it also closed.