Weird California - By Joe Parzanese
Addresses
Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns
Highway 395
13 Miles South of Lone Pine, 1 Mile East of 395
California
Lime Kilns of Big Sur
Limekiln State Park
Big Sur, California
93920
Olema Lime Kilns
Highway 1
Olema, California
Pogonip Lime Kilns and Rock Piles
Lime Kiln Trail
Santa Cruz, California
95060
UCSC Lime Kilns
936 Coolidge Drive
Santa Cruz, California
95064
Wildrose Charcoal Kilns
Charcoal Kiln Road
Death Valley, California
92328
Back in the 1870s two giant charcoal kilns were built in order to turn wood into charcoal for the silver mine up at Cerro Gordo.
Kilns
Several historical kilns still stand throughout California, these varied and impressive structures often date back from the 19th century and were used to bring substances up to extremely high levels of heat for long periods of time.
At least five different sets of kilns still exist in California:
- Lime Kilns in Limekiln State Park on Highway 1, south of Big Sur
- Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns just south of Lone Pine off of Highway 395
- Santa Cruz Lime Kilns located near UC Santa Cruz and in the Pogonips
- Wildrose Charcoal Kilns located in Death Valley
- Olema Lime Kilns at Point Reyes National Seashore
