Ward Charcoal Ovens

Six stone beehives stand in a row at the foot of the Egan Range, thirty feet tall, raised in 1876 by itinerant Italian masons. For three years they turned the surrounding pinyon and juniper into charcoal for the silver smelters at Ward, two miles north — an appetite for wood that helped strip the nearby slopes bare. By 1879 the ore and the timber had both run thin and the ovens went cold. Travelers and stockmen sheltered in them after; reputedly so did a stage robber or two. They are the best-preserved of their kind in Nevada.

What the plaque says

These ovens were constructed during the mid 1870’s and are larger and of finer construction than most other ovens found in Nevada. They are 27 feet in diameter and 30 feet high with a capacity of about 35 cords of wood which was burned for a period of 12 days to produce about 50 bushels of good solid charcoal per cord. The charcoal was used in the smelters at nearby Ward, about 30 to 50 bushels being required to reduce one ton of ore. Each filling of one of these ovens required the total tree crop from 5 or 6 acres of land. During the late 1870’s the hills and mountains around many mining camps were completely stripped of all timber for a radius of up to 35 miles. As railroads penetrated the west charcoal was replaced by coke made from coal, and the charcoal industry faded. “The real worth of the old charcoal ovens is their historical function in reminding present day Americans of a now-vanished industry, without which the great silver and lead bonanzas of the early west could not have been harvested.” Nell Murbarger.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ward Charcoal Ovens — 2.2 mi
  Six great stone beehives in the Egan Range — the best-preserved charcoal kilns in Nevada, and the intact relic of the fuel that fed every silver smelter
• Ely — 15 mi
  The copper town and crossroads at the east end of the loneliest road — home of the Ghost Train and the gateway to Great Basin

More markers nearby

• Ward Mining District — 6.1 mi
• Taylor — 6.2 mi
• Ely, Forging The Link — 15 mi
• Nevada Northern Railway — 15 mi