You can walk inside Nevada’s 30-foot stone kilns that fueled a silver rush in 1876

They’re 30 feet tall and built for silver

Six beehive-shaped stone ovens line up in a row against sagebrush and mountain slopes in eastern Nevada, about 18 miles south of the small town of Ely.

Each one rises 30 feet tall and stretches 27 feet wide, with walls two feet thick at the base. They’ve stood here since 1876, and they’re some of the best preserved charcoal kilns in the state.

You can walk right inside them, and what you find in there tells a wild story of silver, fire and ghost towns.

Italian stonemasons built them in a single year

Silver turned up in the Willow Creek Basin in 1872, and by 1875, the Martin and White Company out of San Francisco had bought up claims and built smelters to process the ore.

The smelters needed fuel that burned hotter and slower than raw wood, so the company brought in Italian stonemasons called carbonari to build six kilns from locally quarried volcanic rock called tuff. Those workers finished all six ovens in 1876.

Each one held about 35 cords of wood, and a single burn took 12 days, chewing through roughly six acres of timber per oven.

The boom town of Ward hit 1,500 and vanished

The town of Ward shot up fast during the silver rush and peaked at about 1,500 people. It had two newspapers, a school, a fire department, two smelters and a stamp mill.

But by 1880, the silver thinned out and miners packed up for newer boomtowns like Cherry Creek. A fire in 1883 burned roughly a third of what was left.

The post office shut down in 1888. Brief mining revivals came in the early 1900s and again in the 1960s, but the town never came back.

Flash floods over the years wiped out most of the remaining buildings. Today, all you’ll find are smelter ruins, mill foundations and a cemetery.

Bandits may have hidden inside the thick walls

Once the ovens stopped producing charcoal in 1879, stockmen and prospectors caught in bad weather used them as shelters.

Local legend says stagecoach bandits hid inside the thick-walled kilns too, though nobody has ever confirmed it.

The land stayed as private ranch property until 1956, when the C.B. Land and Cattle Company gave the state a special use permit to protect the ovens. By 1969, the state park system took over 160 acres.

The ovens were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and the site became an official state park in 1994.

Bring a flashlight and step inside the kilns

You can walk right through the arched openings and stand inside ovens that Italian stonemasons built more than 150 years ago.

The dry-laid stonework is still tight, and you can see the venting system near the base where workers once controlled airflow to regulate the burn.

Interpretive signs outside explain how the charcoal-making process worked and why the mining industry depended on it. The walls still stand 20 inches thick after a century and a half.

Bring a flashlight for the darker corners, and don’t climb on the structures.

Hike to the quarry where the stone was cut

A trail near the ovens leads uphill to the quarry where workers cut the volcanic tuff used to build the kilns.

Further along, you’ll pass foundations of old miners’ homes and two cemeteries where mining-era workers were buried.

The overlook trail climbs through pinyon-juniper woodland to a viewpoint where the ovens sit below you and the Steptoe Valley stretches out beyond.

Another trail connects to the Ward ghost town site, with panels describing what the town once looked like. In winter, these same trails open up to cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

Cast a line for trout in Willow Creek

Willow Creek runs through the park, and it’s a good spot to slow down and fish.

The creek holds brown trout and brook trout that reproduce on their own, and the state stocks rainbow trout as needed. You’ll need a current Nevada fishing license.

Beyond the water, the park supports elk, mule deer, mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, fox and a range of bird species.

Wildflowers show up in season, and the pinyon-juniper forests around the ovens have grown back thick since the timber-stripping days of the 1870s.

The Milky Way lights up right over the ovens

The park sits far enough from any city lights that the night sky here is one of the darkest in Nevada.

On a clear night, you can see the Milky Way stretch across the sky in sharp detail, and the row of stone ovens makes a striking foreground for astrophotography.

The park stays open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so you can arrive late and stay as long as you want.

Ely is also a stop on Park to Park in the Dark, Nevada’s first astronomy route connecting Great Basin National Park and Death Valley National Park through five rural towns.

Camp under dark skies at Willow Creek

Willow Creek Campground has 16 sites, including two large pull-through spaces for RVs and one ADA-accessible site, plus a group camping area.

Every site comes with a picnic table, fire ring and barbecue grill. Pit toilets sit centrally, and potable water runs from May through September.

Bring your own water outside those months. Sites fill on a first-come, first-served basis, but you can also reserve in advance.

The park enforces a 14-day camping limit within any 30-day period, so plan accordingly.

Ride OHVs to thousands of acres of open BLM land

An off-highway vehicle trail circles the outer edge of the park and links up with thousands of acres of Bureau of Land Management land beyond.

OHVs aren’t allowed on the hiking and biking trails inside the park itself, so keep to the designated route. The park also sits along the American Discovery Trail, a coast-to-coast route stretching more than 6,800 miles.

The Nevada section alone covers about 500 miles and crosses 14 mountain ranges.

Six Nevada state parks fall along this trail, and equestrian riders can use the park’s trail system too.

Ride a steam train and explore caves near Ely

Ely works well as a base for the region. The Nevada Northern Railway Museum is a National Historic Landmark where you can ride century-old steam trains on 90-minute trips through the desert.

On select evenings, the railway runs Star Train rides with telescopes and astronomy guides on board.

Great Basin National Park sits about an hour east of Ely, with Lehman Caves, ancient bristlecone pine trees and the 13,063-foot Wheeler Peak.

Cave Lake State Park is close by too, with fishing, boating and more dark sky viewing.

Entry runs $5 to $10 and the road is gravel

Day use costs $5 per vehicle for Nevada residents and $10 for out-of-state plates. Cyclists pay $2 per bike.

Camping runs $15 per night for Nevada vehicles and $20 for out-of-state.

You’ll reach the park via an unpaved road off U.S. Route 93, and the gravel is generally passable, but check conditions in winter. Cell phone service ranges from limited to nonexistent once you’re inside the park.

Pets are welcome on a leash no longer than six feet. Don’t remove or disturb any structures, artifacts, rocks, plants or fossils.

Explore Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park in Nevada

If you want to stand inside 150-year-old stone kilns and camp under some of the darkest skies in the state, Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park is worth the drive.

The park is about 18 to 20 miles south of Ely off U.S. Route 93. It stays open year-round, 24 hours a day, and the Nevada Division of State Parks manages the site.

You can find current details, directions and campsite information on the official website.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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