These Charcoal Kilns are actually in Wildrose Canyon which is on the western side of the Panamint Range that itself forms the western edge of death valley proper. Still, they fall within the boundary of the death valley National Park so I guess that counts, right?
They were built in the 1870's to supply charcoal fuel for lead and silver smelters located some 30 miles further to the West, but they only operated for 3 years. Their current condition is partially a tribute to their Swiss designers, the chinese laborers that built them, and the folk that performed restoration work on them in the 1930s and again in 1971.
They are surrounded by piñon pine trees which were cut and stacked in the kilns. It would take about a week for each kiln full of logs to burn and then about another week to cool down before the charcoal could be removed, loaded onto carts and hauled away.
I can only imagine that the trees do not grow very fast around here, given the very limited rainfall, and that the region soon ran out of trees to burn.
One of the reasons death valley is so dry is that there are four mountain ranges to the West of it. As the air moves in off the Pacific, each time it meets a mountain range it rises. On rising, the air cools and any water in it condenses. These West facing slopes of the Panamints cause any remaining moisture in the air to fall out before crossing over into Death Valley, just a mile or so behind me. Badwater Basin itself, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, is 15 miles off the right edge of this image.
The snow-capped range in the far distance is the Sierra Nevada.
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