Robbie Yarbrough Jr. is the organizes and event producer of Sloss Fright Furnace event and president of Yarbrough Companies (YCater), which operates concession stands at the BJCC Coliseum and Legion Field.
Sloss Fright Furnace has entered into its horrifying 23rd year and known as one of Alabama’s Best Haunted House in the South. Mr. Yarbrough started his venture into the Haunted Houses business back in the 90s when he came up with his successful themed event after a concert at Sloss Furnace, when co-workers informed Robbie of hearing noises coming from deep down in Sloss Furnace. He has sense turned his idea into an event that is known not only in Alabama but around the world. Sloss Fright Furnace has been featured in multiple national TV paranormal shows like Ghost Hunters and Unexplained Mysteries.
The success of Robbie Yarbrough’s idea was in part to an Urban Legend. The story goes ….In the early 1900’s, James “Slag” Wormwood, was foreman of the “Graveyard Shift” with a skeleton crew of nearly 150 workers where temperatures throughout the plant would reach more than 120 degrees. Lack of sleep, the heat, and low visibility made working the furnace literally a “living hell” and only the poorest of workers, desperate for employment, would work it. Wormwood would make his workers take dangerous risks, forcing them to speed up production. During his reign, 47 workers lost their lives, ten times more than any other shift in the history of the furnace. Countless others lost their ability to work due to accidents, mishaps, and even a recorded explosion in the small blowing engine house in 1888 that left 6 workers burned blind. Those souls are said to still haunt Sloss Furnace.
Check out Sloss Fright Furnace each year in October and experience the spooky creation that Robbie Yarbough has brought to life known as Sloss Fright Furnace.