Panaca Summit Charcoal Kilns, Lincoln County Nevada!


Panaca Summit Kilns, Lincoln County !
	On March 20th, 2005 Wesley and I finally got to the Panaca Summit Kilns in Kiln Wash. We had to drive through the storm you see in the back ground. At least we made and I got what I needed. The Sun was nice enough to come out for a while, just long enough to get my photos and then drive back through to the hiway.
The walls at the base of the kilns were 36 inches thick, these are the thickest we have found yet. The is a history board posted here for people to read. I will list it in detail, following; "Panaca Summit Charcoal Kilns. These beehive-shaped kilns were built in the mid-1870's to produce charcoal for the silver mills of Pioche and Bullionville, Nevada. Skilled stonemasons quarried rhyolitic tuff from nearby outcrops. The blocks were carefully dressed, then joined with mid and lime mortar. A third kiln was originally located to the west the two remaining structures. The Panaca Summit kilns were used until the late 1890's, when the mills at Bullionville closed."
	"Local silver ore processing required large quantities of fuel. Since charcoal burned twice as hot as cordwood and was more economical to transport, it became the preferred fuel for smelting. Swiss and Italian woodcutters, known as "the Carbonari", had perfected the charcoal-making process in Europe. They brought these skills to the mining regions of Nevada in the mid-19th century. "Billets" or Five-foot lengths of wood were cut from the trunks and branches of pinyon pine, juniper or mountain mahogany. These were hauled to the kiln site and stacked in two vertical tiers within the ovens. Dry grasses and kindling were stuffed into the central "chimney" of the wood stack and ignited with live coals. Openings around the base of the kiln regulated the air flow, creating a steady fire; the vent at the top of the kiln was plugged to slow and control the burning rate. The carbonari would carefully oversee the combustion of the stack, which required up to 30 days to complete. The charcoal was allowed to cool for a week, then the kiln carefully opened on a calm day.
Spontaneous fires during the opening could quickly destroy the contents of the kiln. Each kiln held over 50 cords of wood and would produce an average of 30 bushels of charcoal per cord, enough to smelt one ton of silver ore. The carbonari received very modest payment for their labors, with most of the profits pocketed by the teamsters and middlemen who delivered the charcoal to the mills." Now the only thing wrong with their history is, they state it takes 30 days to make charcoal in a kiln. When actually they are talking about a charcoal pit. A charcoal kiln only takes five days. That is why they started building kilns instead of using the pits.
	Wesley and I looked all around and we could not find anything showing there was a third kiln. So I do not know for sure if there ever was one.