Estelle Mining Community

Estelle Mining Community. . During the late 19th-century the Shaw family owned much of the surrounding land in the area around Davis Crossroads. The Town of Estelle is named after Estelle Shaw, a local young woman who had died earlier at the age of eighteen. The crossroads area was never extensively developed, but rather occurred at Estelle. A post office was established in 1883, with Avery H. Shaw serving as the first postmaster., The community of Estelle grew during the late 19th-century due to its location along the Chattanooga Southern Railroad completed in 1891 that ran from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Gadsden, Alabama a distance 91.7 miles. It was re-organized as the Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia (TAG Line) in 1911. From 1922 until 1951, the "scooter" motor car handled passenger service on the line. There was a tunnel constructed through Pigeon Mountain for the use of the railroad a short distance east of Estelle., In 1897, John V. Costello, W.D. Hicks, and James Costello took over some small iron ore mines that had been earlier worked on Pigeon Mountain and incorporated the Chattanooga iron and Coal Corporation. Mining triples, a six-mile railroad with seven tunnels, a crusher, scale house and wash houses were all part of the mining operation. During this time period a commissary, store, 175 houses, businesses, two schools (One for Blacks and one for Whites) and two churches (One for Blacks and one for Whites) were located there. The rents were collected by a local man named George Shaw, who was a former postmaster., The ore was brought out of the mines by mule drawn tram cars, with the mules being managed by young boys. These boys, around twelve years of age, were called "mule boys." The workday of the mule boys started at 6:00 am. When they prepared the mules for the day's w work and had them in the mines by 6:30. The boys worked a ten-hour day and were paid ten cents per hour. Most of the mule boys had already been working several years before given that position. Boys as young as seven were used in loading the tram cars, and when they were ten, they would be put to work around the crusher., During the 1920s, the mining operation became unprofitable since the ore became more difficult to dig. The mining operation closed in 1924, the population declined and the commercial and residential buildings either burned or were sold for wood., The Estelle Cemetery, railroad bed, and railroad tunnel remain as remnants of the community. The railroad was purchased by Southern Railway in 1971 and later abandoned.