News: Withee – Black River
Coke Kilns
Transcriber:
stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Brandt, Kowalski
---------Source: Withee Centennial (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 2001
The early loggers were mainly interested in the pine trees and left the hard
timber standing. It was another industry which made use of the hard timber
stands, particularly the hard maple, that industry was the making of
charcoal. Other operations were located near Spencer, Colby, Unity and
Thorp. The Black River kilns were near the present Riverside Cemetery.
The charcoal kilns were owned by the Ashland Smelting Company. The Black
River Coke Kilns were managed by August "Gust" Brandt. Gust also managed
some of the other kilns in the area.
The kilns began operation about 1890. They were quite large, measuring 45 to
50 feet in diameter and 30 to 36 feet in height. The kilns were constructed
of three layers of brick and had ten inch steel bands around them every four
feet to prevent them from bursting from the tremendous heat.
There was a four foot door at the top of each kiln with a steel cover.
Through this door workers would throw in the hard maple logs which were
stacked in preparation for making charcoal. The kilns were filled full of
logs to the top and the door was closed. Around the kilns and this door was
a trestle for the worker to walk on and carry the logs.
After the kiln was filled with logs, the manager would start the fire at the
bottom. The logs were only to smolder, to prevent them from being burned to
ashes. The process of smoldering the logs into charcoal took about 48 hours.
After the charcoal had cooled, a large four foot wide and six foot high door
at the bottom of the kilns was opened and the workers would enter to remove
the charcoal. The men wore gloves and carried buckets made of wood with a
hand grip on each end. With two men to each bucket the charcoal was carried
out of the kilns to the rail cars on the spur line. The cars were low enough
so the workers did not have to climb up to dump the buckets, but just walk
to the edge and dump the charcoal in the cars. Each kiln had enough charcoal
to fill two railroad cars.
The Black River Coke Kilns had nine kilns on the site. A spur line ran into
the site from the main rail line that ran north of the kilns. There were
five kilns to the south of the spur and four to the north. The kilns were
shut down sometime around 1905.
Compiled by Mike Kowalski
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