Kilns
Little photographic evidence survives the operation, so the recreation of the site is based on other examples of the period and region, plus the recollection provided by an oral history. During the early decades of the 1900’s the kiln was a major employer in the community, supporting the local Pitcher School Number 8, built in 1874 on Lime Kiln Road (https://mhc-macris.net/details.aspx?mhcid=SHE.56) and a neighboring community of workers to operate the kiln year-round. As many as ten men were employed. Limestone from the Goodale Quarry and timber from the area fed five kilns.
The kilns were a vertical shaft continuously-fired design. See a link for the period design of this type of kiln, known as a round kiln (Emley, 1913). Kiln designs of the period included a firebrick lining, surfaced with regular brick and an iron sheath and/or band wrapped on the outside. The lime kilns were individually top-loaded by limestone-filled quarry side dumping rail cars that travelled from neighboring quarries. Rail trestles abutted the kilns from the higher grounds northwest and utilized a narrow-gauge rail system. At the base of the kilns, draw tunnels permitted the quicklime to be extracted from the kiln and allowed to cool on a 57 m (190 foot) platform before being placed in wooden barrels for transport.
Quicklime, the finished product was shipped off-site by another rail system. Barrels to transport the lime were also manufactured nearby.
Present day foundations can be measured and give us the size of the structure. A raised stone foundation that the five kilns rest is 60 meters (197 feet) long and about 8 meters (24 feet) wide (the width varies since it is built into the hillside). A flat platform where the quicklime could cool is the same length and 15 meters (45.5 feet) wide. The entire structure is on a north-north-east axis (26 degrees north) and stretch 60 meters (190 feet).
Looking SW on edge of platform. AT on right, up hill.
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