Fourmile Canyon Charcoal Ovens

Nye County

I'm trying to find more history on the many groups of kilns that are scattered throughout the Hot Creek Mountain Range. These include Fourmile Canyon, multiple sets in Sixmile and Wood Canyons, and multiple sets in the Kiln Canyon area. For now, I'm going to quote an article from the Eureka Sentinel dated September 2, 1877:

"On September 2, 1877 the Eureka Sentinel reported that “Henry Allen, the well-known contractor of Eureka, has just finished a work of considerable magnitude at Hot Creek. Last summer he was employed by Tybo Consolidated Co. to build 15 kilns in which the company proposed to burn the charcoal necessary to supply their furnaces at Tybo. He finished the work about a week ago, and some idea of its magnitude may be gathered from the fact that 600,000 bricks were used in building the kilns. “They are oval in shape, having a diameter of 25 feet. Each one has a capacity of 1400 bushels, turning out that quantity of coal to each charge, the operation consuming five days. A great economy of time results from these kilns, instead of burning in the old-fashioned way and as the company owns a vast quantity of wood in the immediate vicinity, they calculate on their fuel costing them about half of the usual rates. A force of twenty men was employed about three months in building the kilns.”

Last Trip/ Road Conditions:  July 2017. First, I had a standoff in the road with cattle that didn't want to move. We took quads and had absolutely no road issues,,, until we did. All of a sudden, an area simply jumped out of nowhere. We got up and down, but it was horrible even on a quad. I wouldn't take my everyday truck over this section. Stick to a quad, side-by-side, or an outfitted full-size vehicle. No sense in ripping your grocery store truck to pieces or getting stuck. I put photos of that section below. Please note, that they DO NOT do justice to how bad this section of road actually was. And yes, I have friends who would make fun of me over my assessment of it!