Ovens in the Desert

 

On the second afternoon of our trip to the Southwest last December we arrived in Ely, NV. Since we had booked our hotel while on the road we decided to go to the Ward Charcoal Ovens first as long as we still had some daylight.

Why charcoal ovens in the desert?

Lots of charcoal is needed for smelting ore. It takes 30 to 50 bushels to reduce one ton of ore.

Beehive-shaped ovens are a more efficient way of reducing pinyon pine and juniper to charcoal than the earlier method of piling wood in an open pit and lighting it on fire. The ovens allow control over how hot and how long the fire burns which is important when producing quality charcoal.

Building the ovens here, close to the source of building materials, the timber needed to make charcoal, and within three miles of the smelters, was a matter of convenience and efficiency.

After only three years of operation (1876-1879), the silver boom waned, the trees were gone, and the need for charcoal ended. People found other uses for the Ward Charcoal Ovens. For prospectors and stockmen, they were shelters in harsh weather. It is also said  that one or two stagecoach bandits hid from the law in these ovens.

(from the information plate of Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park)

We could easily picture the "harsh weather". It was quite cold, there was snow on the ground and the little creek was covered with ice.

On the plus side, we were the only people there and could explore to our hearts' desire. Then the afternoon light started to change.

The sky changed color in a rather dramatic way. It seemed the yellows and oranges got more and more intense by the minute.

We finally left when the sky turned red. By that time, I was already half frozen (the ovens didn't help).

Since this is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday, I need a drink. Last Friday our friends invited us over for a pizza dinner and some delicious wine. Can you see their sweet dog in the background?

Maybe you remember that a few weeks ago I wrote that I had made a raspberry-almond clafoutis. A that time I thought the recipe was asking for too little flour and too much half-and-half which needed a much longer baking time than mentioned. So this time I added another quarter cup of the almond flour and reduced the half-and-half by a quarter cup, scattered some sliced almonds on top and voilà - it turned out perfectly! I was also able to reduce the baking time by ten minutes. I'm glad that I was experimenting with the recipe a bit. This was our contribution to the pizza dinner.

Have a good week, everyone!