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P.O. Box 33 Independence, CA 93526 Fall/Winter 2017-18

FECM Spearheads Efforts to Preserve the Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns

The Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns circa 1923. Photo
Courtesy County of Inyo, Eastern California Museum.

The two adobe brick kilns, built on the flume as well as a large stockpile of logs
west side of Owens Lake by Col. and lumber. The output of silver and lead
Sherman Stevens in January 1877, pro- from Cerro Gordo and Darwin faltered
duced charcoal to fuel the smelters used that same year, as did the demand for
to process silver-lead ore from the Cerro charcoal. In 1878, miners left for new
Gordo mines in the Inyo Mountains east strikes at Mammoth City and Bodie, and
of the lake. Stevens first constructed a Stevens’ short-lived empire collapsed
steam powered sawmill in in the Sierra The Cottonwood charcoal kilns, desig-
Nevada. Lumber and logs were trans- nated California Historical Landmark No.
ported down to the valley via a 13-mile- 537 in 1955, have suffered from the rav-
long wooden flume. The logs were ages of time and vandalism. FECM has
burned in the kilns to produce charcoal, partnered with the County of Inyo, the Los
which was then loaded onto scows that Angeles Department of Water and Power
were towed by the steamboat Mollie Ste- (LADWP), and the Coso Operating Com-
vens across Owens Lake to the smelters pany to protect the kilns from further dam-
on the opposite shore. In September age.
1877, a fire destroyed part of Stevens’

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