Coke Ovens

There are five ovens, wonderfully preserved, surviving in an area so remote and so nearly inaccessible that the lack of disturbance is easily understood.* They are located on a site which overlooks the Gila River, approximately 15 miles east of Florence. The ovens were used to reduce mesquite wood to coke, a hotter burning fuel, for use in smelting gold and silver ore taken from surrounding mines. The beehive-shaped stone coke ovens are about 25 feet in diameter and 30 feet in height. Each has a ground level entry and a few upper level vents. The mesquite wood, burned slowly in the ovens for days, yielded the coke. The new fuel was then transported directly across the Gila River to the community of Cochran (now a ghost town of concrete slabs) and the smelters.

*I have reliable information that the ovens are now fenced off, as they should be. They have always sat on private property and I can?t believe it has taken the owners this long to close them. I have pictures from about 10 years ago as we walked through the house that was furnished, had can goods in the cupboards and I have pictures of the loft in the one oven. Vandals have destroyed the home that was there, burnt the loft that was constructed in the southernmost oven. The last time we were there someone had been chipping away at the lower stones on one of the ovens in, what I viewed, as an attempt to bring it down. I am not going to get on a soapbox but it is acts like this that are closing the areas that we use for recreation. Enough said! This is still a fun trail as we will enter and exit through Box Canyon. I would imagine we can get close enough for the ones that haven?t been there before to take some pictures. As always, Lawn chairs, lunch and a camera.

A State Trust Land use Permit is required to be in this area. For those of you who do not have one, there is a printable application in our files link located on the left side of our welcome page

If you RSVP ?maybe? please change your RSVP accordingly before the trip so I know if you are coming or not. A ?maybe? RSVP will be considered No unless changed.