Basalt Coke Kilns Description

The Basalt Coke Kilns, formally documented as the Fryingpan Kilns, are a set of seven historic beehive-shaped structures standing at the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan Rivers in Arbaney Park. Federal historic survey records date construction of the Basalt Coke Kilns to between 1882 and 1884, built for the Aspen Mining and Smelting Company to meet growing charcoal demand from the silver smelters in Aspen. Each of the Basalt Coke Kilns rises about 25 feet tall and 25 feet in diameter, built from unfired brick and native stone with an exterior coating meant to protect the structures from weather, and upper and lower openings that allowed workers to load pinyon and juniper timber and later remove the finished charcoal.

The Basalt Coke Kilns operated by slow-burning local pinyon and juniper into high-heat charcoal, which mule and horse teams then hauled up the valley to fuel the smelting operations in Aspen. A small settlement called Fryingpan grew up around the kilns during this period, complete with tent saloons and a general store, and a stagecoach halfway house was built nearby to serve travelers between Aspen and Glenwood Springs. The kilns and that halfway house remain the only physical traces of the original Fryingpan settlement. Operations at the Basalt Coke Kilns ended by 1887 once the arrival of the Colorado Midland Railroad and the discovery of coal near Carbondale shifted Aspen’s smelters toward coke produced elsewhere in the valley, and most Fryingpan residents relocated to the new railroad town that would become Basalt.

After their industrial use ended, local ranching families repurposed the kilns for roughly a century as equipment and grain storage and, at times, livestock shelter, which is largely why they survived intact rather than being demolished. As Basalt grew and the surrounding ranchland gave way to subdivisions, the town acquired the kiln property and incorporated it into Arbaney Park, and the Basalt Coke Kilns were designated a Local Historic Landmark in 1993. Today they stand along the Basalt Historical Walking Tour as one of the most complete surviving examples of 1880s charcoal kiln architecture in Colorado.

Category: Outdoor
Address: Basalt, CO 81621
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