The work week ended a long time ago for these kilns. These towers located in Schoolcraft county, Michigan, are the remains of kilns used by the White Marble Lime Company, founded by George Nicholson, Jr., in 1889. The kilns, which were fired by wood waste from the lumber industry, burned dolomite to produce quicklime for use as a building material and an ingredient in the manufacture of paper. As larger corporations were formed and the methods of producing lime were made more efficient, the company diversified; it established a sawmill and a shingle mill and became a dealer in forest products, as well as crushed stone, cement and builders’ supplies. In 1925 the company was reorganized as the Manistique Lime and Stone Company, and continued under that name until the Depression of 1929. And now the kiln towers are slowly depressing back into the ground.
Lime Kilns of the Past
