Allis Chalmers Kilns

Regards,

 Chris

I don't think it stopped. I know there was a hopper they loaded with loader up top of the mountain. Down in the plant the hot rock would fall into extra big bucket on a track loader. A new HD 6 for a time. The mercury was vaporized and condensed in big tubes. The tubes feed out on a table with 6 inch sideboards they called the consentrater table,had powder on it,I think lime.Had a garden hoe and push the powder around and little puddles of mercury would form.

Dad rented pasture from the one operator. Dad talked while he worked and I was told to push the hoe around in the powder. The table was sloped to one corner, when there was enough mercury they put a steel flask under the spigot and filled it. A flask is one quart,it and mercury was over a 100 pounds.

The story was mercury had impurities in it and government was buying a lot of it and could tell where it was mined. So they just stacked filled bottles as they referred to them in little alcove like cord wood. No fence or door as I remember real hot in warm weather nice on cold day. Two men ran the plant 24/7 as it took a lot of oil to heat to operating temp. They got vacation when they did matinence on the furnace. The operators were not the owners so I think that is why most families in the area had a pill bottle full of mercury to play with. We never did,but didn't mean I never played in it. In the latter days of this mine some woo's ran off with a few flakes in the trunk of a car. Town was 20 miles away and police were waiting. The car was easy to spot the back end was dragging the street.

This rock was unusual for mercury bearing rock as it had sulfur in it. There was a good area around the plant that was bear from the sulfur being to high but never had a real bad sulfur smell. Took 10 to 20 years after shutting down before trees brush and weeds grow near it. The big pollution left behind is the high acid waste.

Sorry for running off with your post Wizner85. 

We have built silos at mines, cement plants, and a lime mine but never ran into an A-C kiln. 

But a 1/4 mile east the Buena Vista mine was just getting started good. I believe all crushers and retort/furnace were all new in the mid 1950's. It was complete new operation. All open pit until about 1964. Operation ceased about 1970. I believe the summer of 72 they processed remaining stock piles of ore.

The operator of the Buena Vista bought the Klau works in the 1960's. There was some work there high grading old ore and processing dirt from around the old production site. 

In the 1970's there was a bit of work to control runoff which was all very high acid. In the 1990's EPA took a much bigger hand in things. By 2000 it had been declared a SUPER FUND site. EPA removed all processing equipment, and place all tailings back up the hill in the old pit. Making a bigger mess than ever before by the adjoining property owners reckoning.  But there is a lot of trees and brush growing again on parts the had been bare until now.