Tybo Charcoal Ovens

Nye County

Kilns at the site (2): Update- I was just reminded by the person helping me out with this website, that when he was here in July of 2019, one kiln was partially collapsed. There is only one fully standing kiln left here now. I've added his photos at the end. I'm really glad that I got to see these before they don't exist anymore.

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. They were supposedly built to supplement the kilns at Tybo. 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. These kilns are located farther up the canyon past the town of Tybo. While the road to Tybo has always been pretty good, it gets much rougher the farther past Tybo you go. We were on quads and it wasn't too bad. However, I wished that I would have assessed it a little better for a full-sized vehicle. My thoughts are that it would be pretty bumpy in a full-sized vehicle.