At the end of Success Loop south of Ely, we were at the spot where we could go to the Ward Charcoal State Historical Park. We had heard about these bee-hive shaped ovens and wanted to see them. The ovens were built in 1876 to produce charcoal for the smelter at Ward Mine. Since the miners couldn’t just drive to the closest store to buy charcoal, making it was critical.
brick ovens
To get there from the highway, the 8-mile road was straight and narrow.
a long road ahead of us
to get to the ovens
These ovens are larger and of finer construction than other ovens found in Nevada. They are 27′ in diameter, 50′ high, and could burn about 35 cords of wood for 12 days to produce about 50 bushels of good solid charcoal per cord.
About 30 to 50 bushels of charcoal was needed to reduce 1 ton of ore. Filling each oven required the total tree crop from 5 or 6 acres of land, which meant that the hills and mountains around mining camps were completely stripped of all timber of up to 35 miles.
As railroads came into the area, charcoal was replaced by coke made from coal, and the charcoal industry faded away. Itinerant Italian masons, known as carbonari, built these ovens.
size and shape of ovens
opening was just under 6′
large stones were used at the entrances
inside was a hole at the top and a doorway half way up (you’ll see why soon)
view of the inside
why charcoal? how did ovens work?
Smelting ore required a slow, hot fire. Charcoal was better for this than wood. Wood was stacked inside the oven; the door halfway up allowed men to stack wood inside easier.
The ovens were filled with as much wood as possible before they were fired. The wood was hauled by wagon and cart. Wooden ramps led up to openings at the rear of the ovens, and the wood was layered into the immense stone structure. The lower door and upper access were sealed with iron doors, and the fires were lit.
Small vents around the base of each oven were opened or closed to control the heat of the fire. When the wood was properly charred, all openings were sealed to cut off the air—the circumstances needed to produce charcoal.
Beehive-shaped ovens were more efficient for reducing pinyon pine and juniper to charcoal than piling wood in an open pit and lighting it on fire, which is what they had done. The miners built these ovens close to the source of building materials, the timber, and within 3 miles of the smelters so the ovens would be convenient and efficient.
the stones for the ovens
the rock was taken from a rock outcropping fairly close by; can’t imagine having to get the rock, get it to the right size and shape, and then hauling it back to where the ovens were being built.
the rock outcrop they used for the ovens
A short nature walk starting at the ovens told us about the trees used in the ovens and how they got the water they needed.
Barn among the trees
We’re seeing second-growth pinyon-juniper trees that are growing back. Even if the miners hadn’t used the trees in the ovens, forest fires or insect infestation could have depleted the forest. Because of the high elevation, it’s taking a while for them to grow back, but they are.
pine
juniper
This creek nearby provided drinking water and a source of food for the miners, as well as mortar and a way to fight fires.
the trees are growing back
basin & range overview
As we’ve talked about, we’re in a basin and range area in the Great Basin. Mt. Wheeler is the highest peak totally in Nevada and we’ll see it at our next stop. Over 100 named ranges going north-south and separated by sediment-filled valleys are in Nevada, making it the most mountainous state in the country! We counted 17 summits/passes while in Great Basin, and each one and the next basin was more beautiful than the last.
Great Basin is bounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the west and the Wasatch Mountains on the east. Great Basin is the largest of the 5 distinct regions.
why called the Great Basin?
surface water doesn’t drain to the ocean but rather to the interior basins where it finally “sinks” into the ground
Now on to Great Basin National Park to see Mt. Wheeler and the underground Lehman Caves.
