Historic Birch Creek Charcoal Kilns on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest

Bill Davis explains about the historic Birch Creek Charcoal Kilns on the Dubois Ranger District of the Caibou-Targhee National Forest. The Kilns were built in 1886 by Warren King of Butte, Montana. The Kilns are a representation of a transitional stage in the technology of charcoal manufacture, between traditional charcoal pits and wood distillation plants. Their technology was uniquely adapted to the needs of the nineteenth-century mining industry of the western U.S. The kilns were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The kilns are located 22 miles southeast of Leadore, Idaho on Forest Road 188; 5 miles west of Idaho Highway 28. There is a restroom and picnic tables at the interpretive site. Visitors can enjoy and learn about the kilns on the ¼ mile Interpretive Trail provided. After many years of wear and tear, the Dubois Ranger District went to work in 2000 cleaning the brick that had fallen in over the years, so it could be used to restore the kilns back to their original look. There are only 4 of the 16 kilns left standing today. Stabilization and restoration work included making of the render coat that was applied using the same brush-on technique as used by the original builders. The kilns are made from clay said to be from deposits along Jump Creek on the east side of the valley. Each is about 20 feet in height and diameter and produced about 1,500 bushels of charcoal per load of wood (30-40 cords). Together they produced 44,000-50,000 bushels of charcoal per month. Wood was loaded into the kilns through the lower doors. It was stacked as high as a person could reach, then was loaded through the upper door at the rear. Once filled, the lower door was closed with a sheet of iron and sealed with clay. The rows of holes around the bottoms of the kiln are air inlets. A portion of the kilns load was burned using outside air, to generate heat needed to carbonize the rest. Once the temperature inside the kiln had risen high enough, carbonization generated its own heat, and the inlets could be closed. The bricks and clay used to close them are still present. A wooden ramp once reached from the bank to the upper door. The kiln was fired in the center at the bottom and the fire was drawn to the top by leaving a small unsealed space around the upper door. The upper door was then sealed, and the fire regulated by the air inlets at the base. When carbonization was believed complete, the kilns were opened and any remaining fire extinguished with water. The charcoal was then removed through the lower door and allowed to “cure”. Fresh charcoal readily absorbs oxygen, with a rise in temperature that can cause spontaneous ignition. This was prevented by storing the charcoal in small heaps for several days before transporting it to the smelter. If the charcoal had not cured sufficiently, it could and did burst into flame while being hauled to the smelter. The process of loading the kilns, burning and curing the charcoal took one to two weeks. The kilns probably ceased operation shortly after the Viola mine ran out of ore in 1888. The preferred wood for making charcoal was Douglas-fir. Areas where Douglas-fir was cut can be seen as stands of shorter trees on the hills to the west. Cutting, burning and hauling the wood and charcoal kept as many as 200 men busy. A town called Woodland once existed a few hundred yards west of the kilns. It had a population of 150. Today, no trace remains. During the 1880’s, the Birch Creek Valley bustled with activity as miners worked rich body of ore located about 10 miles east of the kilns. The 1880’s saw a conjunction of events that resulted in the rapid development of lead-silver ore deposits in Idaho. Depletion of gold ores, advances in smelting technology and the growth of rail transport resulted in the establishment of major mines in the Wood River and Coeur d’Alene regions. The Viola Mine was another part of these activities. While it flourished, it settled and developed a part of Idaho that had been bypassed in earlier decades. The Birch Creek Charcoal Kilns are a monument to that era.
Filmed and edited by Charity Parks.