History of Lime Kiln Park

The park was one part of a limestone quarry operated by the Milwaukee Falls Lime Co., incorporated in 1890 and in later years owned by the Tews Lime and Cement Co. of Milwaukee. Originally at this site there were five kilns in a row which used cordwood as the chief source of fuel. A spur of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railway expedited the outgoing shipment of lime.

The remains of the fossils formed this limestone bed thousands of years ago under an inland sea that covered this area. The age of time was known as the Silurian Period when marine invertebrates thrived. The remains of such invertebrates as mussels, snails, and clams formed the layers of this period. The shells of these animals may have been dissolved out and replaced by other mineral deposits that retain the shapes of the shells, just as plaster casts do. Shells also may leave impressions that are seen when the rock layers split apart. Fish skeletons, too, may form fossils in all these ways.

Limestone is a rock composed of calcium, magnesium, carbon, and oxygen. When it is heated the carbon escapes as carbon dioxide gas, leaving lime. Lime is the great essential in the building trades. Some of the best lime in the United States, for construction purposes and outside for certain chemical uses, is the Magnesium Lime, produced in Wisconsin from the deposit of Dolomite that transverses Wisconsin from Grafton to Sturgeon Bay. This abundance of high magnesium limestone, called Dolomite, in much of eastern Wisconsin played an important part in the development of many communities of the State since early territorial days, including Grafton. The rock is underlying comparatively level areas in most places. You can see it exposed in Lime Kiln Park or as a miniature mountain at picturesque High Cliff on the Northeast corner of Lake Winnebago and then continuing again as a steep ridge past Green Bay, and finally forming the Door County peninsula and islands where the limestone is seldom more than three to four feet below the surface. In the past, literally thousands of quarries have been opened in this huge deposit to find the best outcrop that will readily yield high-grade Magnesium Lime.

The first kiln in this area was built by Timmothy Higgins in 1846. By 1900, when the Falls quarry was in active production, Wisconsin ranked third nationally in lime production. Lime was used to whitewash buildings, to condition soil, and to treat animal hides and leather, and for plaster and mortar. Later a stone crusher was added which was used primarily to crush limestone for road beds.

The kilns stopped operating in the 1920’s, by 1940 scarcely 1% of the nation’s lime was produced in Wisconsin. Contributing to the decline of Wisconsin’s lime industry was the higher cost of fuel, the gradual depletion of the quality of limestone, the depression which paralyzed the building industry, and changing markets. Chemical and industrial firms replaced farmers and builders as the chief users of lime.

1 In quarrying limestone rock the first operation was stripping or removing soil and inferior stone from the top of the ledge. Deep holes were drilled into the bedrock about 20 feet apart, and located with sticks of dynamite. After 15 to 20 charges were detonated, the ensuing blast loosened several thousand tons of rock. Blocks of rock that were still too large were drilled with an air-powered jack- hammer, blasted apart with a single stick of dynamite, and broken further into smaller pieces with a sledge hammer.

Stone for the kilns was picked or shoveled by hand then loaded into horse or mule drawn cars on rails which ran from the quarry to the kilns. At the base of the kilns the cars were hooked onto a wheel-powered cable, to be drawn to the top where a workman would release the hinged car sides, to dump the stone.

The kilns had vertical shafts of heavy masonry lined with firebrick. Two fireboxes to each kiln with sliding iron doors were on either side of the shaft, maintaining an intense heat above the arches. Finished lime was drawn several feet below the fireboxes. Iron wheelbarrows were positioned at the drawpits, and as the lime was removed, partly burned lime and stone settled down or was poked down. The stone dumped into the top of the kilns all gradually passed through the firing zone. The process was continuous or rather intermittent as a draw of lime was made every four to six hours depending on the pass-through of the limestone. Experienced firemen knew just when to draw the finished lime and make room for a new batch of stone to be dumped. On the lime floor, in the metal-roofed shed adjacent to the kilns, the iron barrows with their hot chunks of lime were allowed to cool.

Cordwood, obtained from both local and distant sources, was piled close by on the east side of the kilns. Immense mounds of cedar and tamarack wood stocks were accumulated, mostly during the winter months, when they were hauled by horse-drawn sleds to railroad cars and shipped to the plant to be used as fuel in the kilns.

The average lime kiln plant in early Wisconsin had from three to five kilns. They were built of limestone, were square and stood thirty to fifty feet high with walls up to six feet thick. The central shaft, into which the chucks of limestone were dumped, measured five to eight feet in diameter and was well lined with firebrick. At the base of the kiln was an opening, called the drawpit, from which the finished lime would be removed.

The simplest early kilns were “mixed-feed” kilns. First cordwood was dumped down the shaft and set on fire, followed by alternate layers of limestone and cordwood. The heat from each layer of wood converted the stone above it to lime.

2 This method was efficient but the lime removed was mixed with ashes. To avoid this problem, separate fireboxes were built low on either side of the kilns. These kept the burning wood away from the limestone but allowed the heat to reach it.

Temperatures rose as the limestone moved down through the shafts and approached the fireboxes. There the intense heat converted it to lime. The time required for the limestone to travel through the kilns varied from several hours to several days. Most kilns were fed continuously 24 hours a day. Temperatures ranged from 1800 to 2100 degrees Fahrenheit.

When it was time to draw the lime, workmen using long-handled shovels filled the barrows and wheeled them aside to cool. Generally limestone retained the approximate size and shape of the originally rock, but it was greatly reduced in carbon dioxide and water content by the scorching heat. Only one pound of lime was recovered for every two pounds of stone added to the kiln.

Lime reacts violently with water, producing intense heat, and so to prevent fires, controlled amounts of water were added tot the lime in the hydrator before shipment. Thus hydrated and stabilized, the lime could be handled and shipped or stored with safety.

The area had an ignominious period between early industry and its present park role. The village acquired the kilns, paying $6,000 annually over ten years from the Tews Lime and Cement Company. One of the quarries that had supplied the kilns with limestone was a dump and burning area for garbage. After four years of violating DNR orders, the village built an incinerator. Today the incinerator is no longer acting as an incinerator. The quarry was filled and landscaped, with blacktop parking area, and it became the basis for the present day park.

The second quarry, south of the kilns, has been a convenient dump for snow from village streets. It also has been used as a target practice area by the Grafton Police Department until the new police station was built with its own target range built in the basement of the new building.

Another old “water hole” is located in the park between the lime kilns and the second quarry to the south. This pond is spring fed with water coming from the limestone cliffs in the area. Plans to have it cleared and made into a park-like setting, have to date, never materialized.

Three of the five Lime Kilns remain today. The north and central Lime Kilns are 36’ tall (6x7x36). The south Lime Kiln is 24’ tall (6x7x24). (Amended to this document November 3, 2008.)

The lime kilns of Lime Kiln Park in Grafton, Wisconsin is a historical area and should be preserved for future generations as a passive recreational and educational park area to be the enjoyed by all.

The written description accompanying these slides were edited by Carl J. Harms from information obtained from historical data both at the Lime Kiln site and from documents obtained at the USS Liberty Public Library Grafton, Wisconsin. The colored slides were taken by Carl J. Harms.

Special thanks to JLM Visuals for reproducing the extra copies of the colored slides in this collection.