Tag Archives: Kilns

Kilns in Utah

06 Monday Jul 2020

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There is an awesome article in the Winter 2015 edition of Utah Historical Quarterly (Volume 81, number 1) by Douglas H. Page Jr., Sarah E. Page, Thomas J. Straka, and Natham D. Thomas about Charcoal and its role in Utah mining history.

They list the remaining sites containing charcoal kilns and I’ve been loving visiting and documenting the kilns for years. This page of my website will be to list kiln sites and link to pages for those specific sites.

  • Charcoal Kiln Sites: From the Winter 2015 edition of Utah Historical Quarterly

Charcoal Kiln Sites:

  • Barrel Spring (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Blue Cut (Carbon County District, Carbon County) (no remains)
  • Broad Canyon (E. Tintic District, Utah County)
  • Cactus Mine (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Carbonate Gulch (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Carbonate West (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Copper Gulch (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • County Line (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Deer Creek (American Fork District, Utah County) (no remains)
  • The Dry Wash (Iron Springs District, Iron County)
  • Enoch (Iron County)
  • Forest City (American Fork District, Utah County)
  • Frisco (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Gold Hill (Gold Hill District, Tooele County)
  • Homansville (E. Tintic District, Utah County)
  • Iron City (Iron Springs District, Iron County)
  • Kelsey Canyon (Stockton District, Tooele County) (no remains)
  • Kiln Spring (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Lake View (Stockton District, Tooele County)
  • Lamerdorf Canyon (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Leamington (Leamington District, Millard County)
  • Leeds Creek (Silver Reef District, Washington County)
  • M & M (Spanish Fork District, Utah County) (no remains)
  • Mill Fork (Spanish Fork District, Utah County) (no remains)
  • Ophir (Ophir District, Tooele County) (no remains)
  • Pine Canyon (Stockton District, Tooele County) (no remains)
  • Rush Lake (Stockton District, Tooele County) (no remains)
  • Sawmill North (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Settlement Canyon (Stockton District, Tooele County) (no remains)
  • Soldier Canyon (Stockton District, Tooele County)
  • Spring Glen (Carbon County District, Carbon County) (no remains)
  • Spring/Poor Hollow (Apex Mine District, Washington County)(no remains)
  • Three Kilns Spring (Frisco District, Beaver County)
  • Tooele City (Stockton District, Tooele County) (no remains)

Lime Kiln Sites:

Old Brickyards

10 Friday Aug 2018

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2017-11-29 10.36.07

Old Brickyards

This historic marker, located in Cedar City reads:

It is believed that the first fired bricks in Utah were made in Cedar City in connection with the attempt of the Deseret Iron Company to manufacture iron in 1852. The blast furnace was located in the vicinity of 400 North 100 East. Fired brick was made near there for use in the lining of the blast furnace and construction of some brick homes and some public buildings.

By the turn of the century, most of the brickmaking operations had moved to the southern outskirts of the city. These were located here, immediately north, northeast, east and southeast of this monument. They supplied the brick for homes, commercial and public buildings for Cedar City and some surrounding areas until well into the 1930s. The Old Administration Building and the Old Main Building of the Southern Utah University campus, several blocks from here, were constructed from brick made in this immediate area. This monument stands on part of one of these brickyards, and includes some of the original brick made here. It is a memorial to the various brick makers including Bryant, Fretwell, Dutton, Rollo, Jackman, Palmer and others unrecorded and those who worked for them.

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A Tragedy at the Site of the Provo Lime Kiln

04 Monday Sep 2017

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2017-07-11 18.51.11

A Tragedy at the Site of the Provo Lime Kiln

When Provo‘s colonists switched from making log cabins to building adobe homes, line became a critical product for masons to have on hand.  They needed it to make the mortar used in the rock foundations of the larger adobe homes and Provo’s first tabernacle.  Painters used lime to make whitewash to cover the interior walls.  Tanner also used it to manufacture leather.

In order to manufacture lime, men brought limestone from the nearby mountains to specially constructed kilns where the rock was heated with flames until it burned into a white substance, lime.  Joseph Mecham burned Provo’s first lime in 1851.

When entrepreneurs began manufacturing fired brick in the early 1860s, several brick kilns sprang up along the road between Provo and Springville.  Manufacturers began burning more lime for mortar.  J. Reese build a new kiln in 1866.  Sometime around the turn of the century, Thomas Boardman build lime kilns in the foothills northeast of the Spring Creek Elementary School.

A tragedy occurred at these kilns during the fall of 1930.  Roy Van Cott of Salt Lake City owned the kilns and Chris L. Peterson, who had worked at the kilns for 26 years, and Richard Fulkerson operated them, fueling them with coke now instead of wood.

On Friday, November 13, the men had lined a kiln with limestone and started the fire.  The next day, Fulkerson checked from the top of the kiln to see if the fire was burning properly.  The he went into the pit to get a better look.  Carbon monoxide fumes overcame Fulkerson and he fainted.  Luckily, Peterson and another workmen saw him fall and dragged him to safety.

About 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, Peterson went alone to check on the same kiln.  His foot slipped near the edge of the pit, and he hit his head on a railing and fell unconscious into the hole near the mouth of the kiln.  When Peterson was gone longer than expected, his wife sent Nels Peterson to check on him.  Nels found his brother’s lifeless body in the pit.

This plaque is located in Memorial Park, to see other plaques in the series click here.

2017-07-11 18.51.19

Old Lime Kiln

13 Monday Jun 2016

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This old lime kiln, now restored, is the best preserved of seven kilns constructed here during the late 1880’s. It was built by John Kyhl for Jens Larsen Jenson, a Swedish immigrant. The vital lime was used in the construction of homes, churches and schools of the early settlers. Limestone was quarried in the nearby hills, malted down in the kilns and cooled – a process that took several days. The result was a fine, white powder suitable for brick-making, mortar and plaster. Use of this kiln ended around 1905 when Mr. Jensen went blind from exposure to the extreme heat.

See other historic markers in the series on this page for SUP Markers.