Canyon Creek Charcoal Kilns
Supplying
charcoal to the smelting furnaces at Glendale developed as a major
satellite industry since the company used up to 100,000 bushels of
charcoal a month. The smelting furnaces at Glendale used large
amounts of charcoal and coke for fuel. Coke was shipped in from
Pennsylvania at $19.00 a ton. At peak production, ten tons were
consumed in a single day.
Charcoal, which the company used in amounts up
to 100,000 bushels a month, was prepared in the canyons adjacent to
Glendale. There was an ethnic division to the enterprise with most
of the logging being done by Canadian and French woodcutters while
Italian laborers burned in pits to produce the finished charcoal
which sold to the furnaces for 11 cents a bushel.
These workmen lived in cabins scattered
throughout the mountains. The company ran 38 kilns on Canyon Creek
in order to supply the more than one million bushels of charcoal the
smelters used each year. The ruins of kilns and pits may still be
seen north of Glendale in Canyon Creek. Flux for the smelters came
from the Norwood Iron Mines in Soap Gulch, northeast of Melrose.
In 1876 four charcoal kilns were erected in a
location directly across the road from the Dahler and Armstrong
Smelter. Constructed of native stone, wood was transported to the
site for the manufacture
of the fuel.
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Original Kilns built near the
Dahler & Armstrong Reduction Works at Glendale
These same kilns were dismantled allowing for the reuse of these
stones for building the new mining company office building which
remains to this day. If one looks close enough at the office
building walls, carbon is plainly visible on the stone.
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Later, these kilns were dismantled and
recycled as material to construct the new Hecla Mining Company
office. Their replacement structures were constructed of brick; a
material more resilient to the constant expansion and contraction
forces involved in the process. The newer kilns were located
location much nearer to the timber source, in order to reduce the
freight of the weight.
In January, 1882, plans were made to erect 16
kilns in Canyon Creek with a seven mile long flume to convey the
timber to the site to be converted to charcoal. The fuel was needed
to offset the immense cost to the HCMC in purchasing and freighting
coke from Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1884, McLean and Johnson
were manufacturing 10,000 bricks daily for the construction of more
kilns and in less than a year, eighteen were in operation on the
banks of Canyon Creek. Six more were planned to be in operation by
the end of 1885.
Knippenberg's rendition of Kiln yield drawn on Company Letterhead
In 1885, Sappington & Company, a partnership
consisting of H. T. Sappington and Henry Kappes, began to construct
six kilns located on the banks of Trapper Creek near Greenwood, the
site of the HCMC Concentrator. They were finished and began
production by early November of that year. The following summer, the
partners began construction of six more, which were located at the
mouth of Sucker Gulch. On September 17, 1886, the Dillon Tribune
reported that five had been completed and the final one half done.
Charcoal Sheds located directly across from
the smelter at Glendale.
The manufacture of charcoal was a very labor intensive process.
After trees were harvested, they were cut into four foot lengths and
sent down a chute allowing gravity to take the logs close to the
kiln site. Most of the timber was harvested atop the mountain in the
Vipond Park area. There the pieces were stacked with precision
inside the kilns, first through the main door until the level of
wood blocked that access; and then scaffolding was needed to finish
loading the kiln through the top access doors. When completed, the
average kiln held nearly thirty‐five
cord of wood, which would yield 1500 bushels of product. The bottom
vents of kilns were plugged with bricks and the doors were closed
and sealed with mortar.
The mass of wood was ignited and the kiln
master began careful observation to ensure a quality product. For 4
days, the smoke was white, indicating that moisture was being driven
from the fuel. After the smoke turned from yellow to blue in color,
the top vents were plugged and the center row was opened and after
12 hours, those vents were plugged and the bottom plugs were removed
to draw the heat to the bottom of the kiln. When it was assumed that
the burn was complete, all of the vents were sealed. Two or three
days later, the top door was opened and approximately 500 gallons of
water was dumped onto the fuel and the door was again closed. When
the metal doors became cool enough to touch, the final product was
removed and shipped to the fuel bins at Glendale in wagons.
Today, remains at all three locations still
stand as a reminder of the 7.5 million bushels of fuel produced for
consumption at the Glendale smelter. Recent restoration projects at
the largest operation on Canyon Creek, has rekindled life for some
of the aging structures. The remains of the kilns in Sucker Gulch
and the kilns on Trapper Creek near Greenwood have fallen into
disrepair and by virtue of their location, their existence is
practically unknown.
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