Located in Death Valley National Park are ten 25 foot high limestone kilns. Lead ore was discovered in California in 1875, so George Hearst (William Randolph's Dad) purchased a large area to mine silver from the ore. He formed the Modoc Mining Company, and after depleting the area of a limited supply of wood, he built these kilns to produce charcoal from pine logs, which was used in the smelting process. Functional for only 2 years, he shut down the mining operations because of the lack of quality ore.
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