Panaca Coal Kilns: Remnants of a Past Industry

In this installment of ‘History Off the Beaten Path,’ we visit the stacked stone, beehive-shaped structures once used during the West’s mining boom.

One of the remaining Panaca Charcoal Kilns cuts an eerie figure against Nevada's bluffs and hills. Deena Bouknight

Although the number is difficult to ascertain, it’s estimated at least 300,000 to half a million abandoned mines exist in the state of Nevada. That’s just within one state where deposits of silver and gold were discovered in the mid-19th century. Ores were mined heavily until around the mid-1950s. Some mining still occurs in a few areas of the Southwest.

To separate precious metals like silver, gold, or copper from the ore, it had to be smelted. Smelting entails putting the ore into a high-heat furnace so that the precious metal melts away from the rock and impurities (slag) and forms a manageable, valuable glob.