Quiet History Among the Pines
Some days I just want to take a drive down the winding roads snaking throughout Prescott, Arizona and get back to nature. Sometimes, I have dreams about driving the cliff face roads down White Spar or a I’ll “accidentally” get lost just so I can enjoy the stretching valley vistas down Senator Highway. Although l live among the pine trees and there are over 90 hiking trails in my area, one of my favorite trails is less than half an hour away and is surrounded by large summer homes built atop the remnants of a once thriving gold and silver mining town. Our destination: the Walker Charcoal Kiln.
Walking along the warm, sandy path through tall, thin pines, you can see the ancient structure, like the ruins of an old castle. Resembling a tall stone tower built from flat stones, its arched entrance is the only shade in the area which was once stripped bare for its lumber. It’s only in recent decades that the forest has started to reclaim her land.
The Walker Charcoal Kiln was built by Joe and Jake Carmichael in 1880 to feed the demand of the local silver ore refinery. If you stare at the tower long enough, you begin to notice patterns in the rocks, indicative of how a pair of brothers might have built the massive kiln by hand. Long ago, silver controlled the movements of the world’s most powerful players. Charcoal was the primary source of fuel in the complex smelting process of silver as well as powering the steam engines needed in the brutal processing. Now, the kiln sits empty and quiet, surrounded by a slowly encroaching treeline. The placard in front of the kiln reads:
The Boom and Bust of Walker – Now home to summer cabins, Walker was once a boom town sustained for nearly 80 years by both gold and silver mining. As many as 3,000 people were reported to have lived here at its peak. It could brag of liveries, restaurants, hotels, barber shops, a dairy, an ice house, a jail, and about seven saloons.
Mining in the Walker area began to decline in 1893 when silver became demonetized and the government no longer stabilized the price. Almost all of Arizona’s silver mines closed at this time, and silver was no longer the “King of Arizona Mining”.
These days, if you drive up Big Bug Mesa Rd. and follow the signs to the Walker Kiln you might come across a deer with audacity or a little dog standing its ground, blocking the roadway to the kiln. Otherwise, Walker is a much quieter community than the energetic boomtown it once was.
If you sit still and take a few moments to observe and look around, you can feel the history everywhere. The pines still whisper stories of the past to the patient listener and the birds are more than happy to share their tales and adventures as they go about their day.
Even the shortest hike can bestow the greatest reward. Sitting among the pines next to the Walker Charcoal Kiln is like sitting with a quiet friend. You don’t need to explain yourself. You only need to be.
If you enjoyed this quiet stop along the way, you can support future coffee-fueled wanderings via Buy Me a Coffee.
