Points in the Distance: The Piedmont Kilns

In the high, wind-swept desert of Uinta County, Wyoming, stand three silent, stone sentinels that look more like ancient monuments or oversized beehives than industrial equipment. These are the Piedmont Charcoal Kilns. Once the fiery heart of a massive fuel industry that powered the mineral wealth of the American West, they are now the skeletal remains of a town that the Union Pacific Railroad literally left behind.

The history of these kilns is a story of masonry skill, the transition from the pits to the patent, and the strategic importance of charcoal in an era before the railroad could easily deliver coal or coke to every smelting furnace in the mountains.

 

The Engineering of the "Beehives"

In 1869, Moses Byrne constructed five charcoal kilns. At the time, this was a revolutionary move. Most charcoal in the U.S. was still made in pits or rectangular kilns. Byrne’s kilns featured a rounded conical shape, or "beehive" design.

Technical Specifications of the Piedmont Kilns:
  • Dimensions: They were built with a bottom diameter of 30 feet and walls approximately two feet thick.
  • Height: While some sources claim they reached 30 feet, the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) measured them at 25 feet.
  • Material: Byrne used native sandstone and limestone.
  • Design: Each kiln had a ground-level loading door and a higher "window" on the backside to allow the kiln to be filled to the very top.

The distinctive beehive design was a masterpiece of thermal engineering. It acted as a parabolic dome, focusing heat inward. Byrne may have been an early innovator or an early adopter of the design popularized by James C. Cameron, a mining engineer who introduced similar "patent kilns" to Hilliard and Utah shortly after.

 

Bibliography

  • Straka, Thomas J., and Douglas H. Page, Jr. "Southwestern Wyoming’s Late Nineteenth-Century Charcoal Burning Industry." The Wyoming Historian, Vol 1, Iss 1, Feb 2026.
  • Crofutt, George A. Crofutt's New Overland Tourist and Pacific Coast Guide. The Overland Publishing Company, 1878.
  • Historic American Building Survey (HABS). Piedmont Charcoal Kilns Documentation. U.S. Department of the Interior.
  • The Wyoming Press. "The Passing of Piedmont." 1896–1897.
  • Laramie Weekly Sun. "The Great Wood Drive." 1875.