Batsto Lime Kiln

[GermanG]

I was just reading a copy of the Batsto Citizens Gazette from Summer, 1971 and there is an article describing an excavation of a lime kiln along the eastern shore of the millpond. I've never heard of this relic before. Has anyone here seen any evidence or remains of it?

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Budd Wilson told me that he helped excavate the kiln sometime after 1965. They filled it in afterward, but he says some of the foundation may be visible. It is located about where the road to the old nature center leaves the Washington Turnpike.

 

[MarkBNJ]

I've run into three or four of those things, so far, in the woods around NW Jersey. Interesting, for sure, but it didn't occur to me that someone would excavate one. Do you recall what they were hoping to find? And what they did find?

 

[pinelandpaddler]

They found lots of shells and limestone. The former, by and large, represents the earlier stages of the kiln (pre-19th century).

 

[MarkBNJ]

They found lots of shells and limestone. The former, by and large, represents the earlier stages of the kiln (pre-19th century).

Haha, yep, that's what you would find . I thought maybe they were looking for artifacts of the people who used the kiln (which would be more interesting to me), but it make sense that what you would get primarily is insight into the process.

 

[GermanG]

I was familiar with the process of preparing limestone in kilns in the northern part of the state, even having visited a few. I had never heard of it being done with oyster or clamshell before. But then again, maybe I did. My memory is not what it once was. I can see where roasting it before using it in the furnace might cause it to be more effective. Another possibility, since Batsto was a major agricultural area as well, was roasting the shells prior to spreading them on cultivated fields. I've heard of shells being used for adjusting the pH of soil in the past and I know the limestone kilns in the north processed lime for agricultural use as well as for the iron industry.