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Eagle Lime Products; Kettle Morraine Forest, WI
This location is open to the public along the Scuppernong Springs Trail (not to be confused with Scuppernong Trails) in the Kettle Morraine Southern Unit.
This is the remains of Eagle Lime Works, where they dredged marl from the bottom of the wetlands. Marl comes from a plant called Chara, that stores concentrated lime in its stems. When it dies to the bottom of the marshy land, it turns into a gray primordial-like ooze. When scooped up and processed, it can be used as fertilizer for farmland or mortar for construction.
From the WI DNR website:
"The market for lime was encouraging, so in 1905 the Pereles family, wealthy entrepreneurs with diverse business interests, speculated and funded construction of a 34-foot by 200-foot building to house a kiln, and a 30-foot by 50-foot building to hydrate and package the lime. Construction proceeded quite rapidly, and soon the Eagle Lime Products Company began producing caustic lime for cement, mortar and firebrick, and hydrated lime for fertilizer."
"After only six years of actual lime production (1908 to 1914), mining and processing operations ceased. A Chicago and Northwestern crew removed the six-mile long spur to Dousman in 1917, and in 1918 the Wisconsin Secretary of State dissolved the company. The plant sat vacant for decades until the machinery was dismantled and shipped to a mine in Mexico in 1942."
The trail to the ruins is along a old RR line, that traveled 6mi north to Dousman. The rails are long gone. However there is a 20ft section installed just to show the tourists it used to be there. The trail bridge over Scuppernong Creek is also built on top of an old RR bridge. If you look back at the north end of the bridge after you step off, you can still see the tracks under there....
1. All that remains of the processing facility. Not much to see in terms of a rurex location, but the hike is beautiful and I just love the history behind these places....
2.
3. These look like they could have been RR trestles. They lead up to about what would have been the 2nd floor of the production facility. To dump wet marl into furnaces? Remove finished product? Or maybe just supported pipes....
4. Not entirely sure here. These used to be in the creek to the east, so you could walk over the creek. When I was a kid, a beaver had it all dammed up. About 10 yrs ago they built a pedestrian bridge, and dragged these between the plant and the creek to the west. Part of a blast furnace? Some sort of heated trommel?
5. One of the dredge lines.
6. This is actually the 100(+/-) year old remains of a wooden dredge platform. I have always wanted to walk out to it for better pics, but this spring fed water is 47f year-round, and I would probably sink to my hips in muck. Not to mention I would be damaging a sight for others to see...
7. Another angle of the dredge.
Give abandonment a reason for its sacrificial reclamation to nature. Love it. Remember it. Take a picture. Share it. Leave the decay to nature.
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I love this place, used to camp a lot across the street at Ottawa. Never knew the history of it though, thanks for sharing!
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