Lime Kiln

Lime Kiln. . , In the mid-1800s, the air here was filled with the earthy smell of wood smoke and lime being rendered into powder. Half a mile to to north, a steamboat stopped to pick up produce from farmers and merchant good. Griggsville Landing featured a warehouse, boat yard, hotel and grist mill., Cooking Rocks into Powder , The Griggsville Landing lime kiln was likely built in the mid-1850s. At that time, lime (calcium oxide) was used in mortar to bind bricks or stones together and to chink (fill gaps) between the logs of a log building. Lime was also an ingredient in plaster and whitewash., Hardwood logs were stacked in the base of the kiln. Pieces of limestone 6-8 inches in diameter, quarried from the bluff above the kiln, were dumped directly into the chamber’s open top., Once the kiln was fired, it took about 72 hours to heat the limestone to 1,517 F (825 C). This drove off the carbon dioxide in the rocks and reduced them to lumps of lime and powdered lime. After the kiln cooled for 12 hours, the lime was raked out through the opening at the base and packaged in barrels., Short Lived , Immediately after the Civil War, lime production became industrialized, and the kiln was closed. , By 1872, county records show a blacksmith shop at this location. , In 1999, Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.