The Old Lime Kiln

This was my last full day in Texas. I'm hopping on a plane tomorrow to go back to Oregon. Steve has been hanging out in Humbug campground, east of Portland, with little or no Internet access, so his updates will come when he can get connected.

I went to a BBQ this afternoon with Scott and Kendra - a potluck gathering of some of the folks Scott works with. It was held on the ranch of one of his coworkers, up a little higher in the hill country than we are. It was a beautiful setting - a classic stone ranch house, huge spreading oak trees, complete with a little bubbling creek. The food and the conversation were great too!

It was a really nice one hour drive out to the site, and I always enjoy seeing the small towns along the country roads. There's so much to learn about the state, and it's so big! Texas is very proud of its history, and they make it really easy to identify and learn about a lot of the small details that make history come alive. For instance, there are thousands of historic markers around the state. There are 111 markers here in Hays county alone. We pass one of them every time we go to town.

Lime Kiln Road takes its name from, surprise. . . an old lime kiln! so it's a frequent reminder of the history of this area. The authors of a local history, "Clear Springs and Limestone Ledges", estimate the kiln was built somewhere around 1870-1887, but the date of 1887 is stated on the plaque at the site.

The Handbook of Texas On-line has quite a lengthy discussion of the history and importance of these kilns. Here's an excerpt:
"Lime had many uses for farmers, ranchers, and townsmen on the frontier. It was used for making concrete, mortar, and plaster for all sorts of stone construction, as well as for softening water and reducing the acidity of butter, cream, milk, and "sour" soil. Cooks used it to make hominy, tacos, and tortillas. Other uses included tanning leather, blowing fish out of water, destroying diseased animal bodies, killing termites and weevils, drying cuts on livestock, whitewashing, sanitizing outhouses, and making sheep-dip."  'Not too difficult to see why the kilns went out of business. I don't know about you but I haven' had to sanitize an outhouse or dip a sheep in quite awhile, and much larger and more efficient processes are now used to prepare lime for agricultural and other uses.

The kiln on Lime Kiln road still stands, however. It's just a few yards past Travis Elementary, just over the creek. There's a nice wide spot in the road for cars to pull over. That makes a good landmark too, as when the trees are fully leafed out you can't really see the kiln until you walk up to it. It's on the west side of the road, across from the "wide spot". There is a state historical marker there that gives pertinent details of the kiln's history.

Texas Mallow

The kiln is in a chain link enclosure, which was filled with lovely bright Texas Mallow when I visited. It's been really hot, but the huge trees shading the area have protected the flowers so they have lasted later than most.

As I said, we have a lot to learn, and all these markers will help. This nice index makes it easy to locate the markers in Hays County, or you can go to this clickable map and select any county in the state. With 111 markers, we obviously have a lot of history to learn in just our county alone!